KNUCKLES AND TAILS GO TO ECHIDNAOPOLIS
by JULIE-SU LOVES YOU
Summary: THIS IS THE MOST IMPECCABLE THING EVER. HAVE FUN, IF YOU CAN SURVIVE! you're in for a scare rl stein.
1. Chapter 1: Strange News

Knuckles the Echidna decided to climb back to the top of the island so he at least had some better light. Hopefully Tails, or at least Sonic would come along and figure out what the strange object was that he had found that morning.

As Knuckles got to the top of the island, he thought he could hear someone walking around on the grass.

"Hey!" He shouted, before noticing it was Rouge the Bat, of all people. "Uh...never mind..." he tried to escape back into the tunnel but Rouge pushed him over.

"Ow..."

"Hello, Knuckie! What are you up to today, sweetie?"

"Go away, creep..." Knuckles grumbled. "Or at least help me with this thing..."

"What thing? Do you mean like-" Rouge began.

"THIS THING!" Knuckles shouted, not allowing Rouge to finish her sentence. He threw the object at Rouge's face.

"That's not very nice!" Rouge whined.

"I don't care..."

"What is this, anyway..." Rouge stared at it for what felt like hours.

"...Uh, can you help me with it...?" Knuckles asked, not really wanting to rely on Rouge of all people for help.

"Yeah..." Rouge began, "but only on one condition..."

"Seriously..." Knuckles muttered. "Just give it back then!"

"Okay...but only on one condition..."

"GIVE IT BACK!" Knuckles shouted.

"You know the drill." Rouge said creepily.

Knuckles was about to run up to her and rip it out of her creepy hands when she jumped up and began flying away.

"You really shouldn't let your weaknesses get the better of you, Knuckie..." Rouge yelled as she disappeared.

"Hopefully it was nothing important..." Knuckles sighed.

Meanwhile, Tails was outside his workshop being harassed by Big the Cat and Cream the Rabbit who were trying to sell him chocolates for some kind of weird fundraiser.

"For the last time, I have no rings! I'm sorry!" Tails cried.

"But Mr. Tails, it's for a good cause..." Cream insisted.

"Sonic!" Tails shouted, getting frustrated. Why does he have to be on one of his runs right now?

"Froggy will be sad..." Big moaned.

"If I wasn't broke, then I would buy some of your chocolates! But I'm broke!" Tails shouted.

"There's no need to shout, Mr. Tails. Just buy a box of chocolates."

Seriously, are they deaf? "Hey look, it's Silver! He'll buy your chocolates! I've gotta go!" Tails yelled, and darted off.

Big and Cream walked over to Silver the Hedgehog who was mumbling stuff about the Iblis Trigger. Cream lifted up a box of chocolates.

"Care to buy a box for a good cause?" Cream asked.

Silver stared at her, then the box, then Big, then Cream.

"IT'S NO USE!" He screamed, knocking the box of chocolates out of Cream's hands, then running away.

"Oh..." Cream mumbled.

As Tails continued running, he looked behind himself to make sure Cream wasn't flying after him with her ears. This was not a very good idea however, because he ended up running straight into that creep known as Rouge. He fell over.

"Oh great..." Tails grumbled, noticing Rouge.

"Oh, hello cutie! Would you like some chocolates?" Rouge asked.

"You too?!" Tails cried, then noticed a strange object laying by Rouge's creepy heart high heel boots. Without hesitation, Tails quickly snatched the object.

"Me too what...hey! That's mine! Give it back!" Rouge cried.

"Do you think I believe you for a second?" Tails retorted.

"Okay, fine, I'll confess, but only for you, cutie. I stole it from Knuckles." Rouge gave in.

"Of course..." Tails muttered. He flew off without saying another word.

Tails landed on Angel Island and looked around. Knuckles was there, wandering around.

"Hey, Knuckles!" Tails shouted, running up to him. "What's this?"

"Did you get that back from Rouge?" Knuckles asked. "Thanks!"

"No problem..." Tails said. "...but what is it?"

"I don't know, I was wondering if you could figure it out..." Knuckles replied.

Tails carefully observed the object for what seemed like a very long time. Suddenly he dropped it on the ground.

"Smash it."

"Uh, why?"

"There might be something in it." Tails replied. Knuckles bent over and smashed the object. They both stood there and looked at the smashed plastic with some paper underneath. Tails grabbed the paper. The paper was pld-looking with a yellow tinge, and the writing was neatly-written in black ink. Tails began to read it out-loud.

"If anyone finds this letter, we are letting you know that we have all moved to an underground city named Echidnaopolis..." Tails paused. "Wait, what?" He continued reading as Knuckles just stared at him blankly. "We are the echidnas that once thrived on the island. If you are reading this, you are probably the offspring..." Tails paused. "Okay..." he said, then continued reading, "of the two echidnas that stayed behind. Find us immediately, as we are waiting to meet you, and so you can have offspring too and you can pass down the guardian genes. if you are just some other person then now you know there are echidnas living under the ground." Tails stared at the letter for a moment. "What did I just..." He looked at Knuckles, who appeared completely blank. "Um...Knuckles?"

"...Let me see that!" He shouted angrily, and grabbed the letter right out of Tails's hand.

"What does it say on the back?" Tails wondered. Knuckles slowly turned the paper over.

"It has...the..."

"What?" Tails whispered.

"...Directions..." Knuckles dropped the papers. He stared at Tails, looking terrified, then dashed away.

"Knuckles!" Tails shouted. He grabbed the paper and started running after him. "Wait!" As Tails ran off after Knuckles, he had not noticed Rouge watching them from behind a tree. She smiled creepily, then flew off.

Meanwhile, Amy Rose, the bright pink hedgehog had joined Cream, Big, Cheese the Chao and Froggy to sell their chocolates, forming "Team Rose". They had trapped Shadow the Hedgehog with their chocolate sales.

"Want to buy our chocolates, Mr. Shadow? We're trying to raise money for Amy Rose's new ice cream parlour!" Cream asked.

"How is a an ice cream parlour a 'good cause'?" Shadow asked.

"We'll make the whole world happy by selling soft-serve ice cream!" Amy screeched in Shadow's ear. "There'll be cherry, chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, sherbet, green tea, grape, ant…"

Cream gave Amy an odd look at the last three flavours.

"Froggy…" Big mumbled. Froggy jumped on Shadow's face. Shadow ripped it off and threw it back at Big.

"I don't want any-" Shadow began.

"Guess what everyone?!" yelled Rouge suddenly. Everyone looked at her. "Knuckles has a girlfriend!"

At that remark, everyone's mouths dropped. Amy's ice cream fell right off the cone.

"Chao chao?" Cheese said, confused.

"Did I hear you correctly?" Shadow asked.

"Yes, you did! Now continue on with you ice cream sales or whatever." Rouge replied and flew off.

"She doesn't mean herself, does she?" Cream asked. "Because I thought Mr. Knuckles disliked Ms. Rouge."

"Maybe there really are other echidnas..." Shadow said.

"I thought all the echidnas were gone!" Amy exclaimed. She bent over and scooped the fallen ice cream back onto her cone. "That was weird." Amy said blankly.

"Knuckles is like the last person…" Shadow began, but then noticed Big motioning towards the boxes of chocolates he had set down earlier. "Uh bye!" Shadow said and ran off.

"But Mr. Shadow! You still need to buy the chocolates!" Cream yelled. She turned to Amy. "This is really hard, isn't it?" she sighed. "I guess we should find Knuckles and ask him what's going on. And maybe he'll buy some chocolates."

"Okay!" Big exclaimed.

Back at the island, Tails had finally caught up to Knuckles, who looked very stressed.

"What's wrong, Knuckles?" Tails cried. "What if it's not real? Maybe it's just someone playing a prank on you. I wouldn't be surprised..." Tails tried his best to comfort Knuckles.

"It probably is real…but I don't want to go...and there are even the directions and everything!" Knuckles muttered, pointing to the paper in Tails's hands.

Tails looked at the back. There is a river that leads to the elevator of Echidnaopolis. Follow it to get there. "Oh…"

"We can't go, and we can't stay… I don't know, Tails…it could be a trick, but if it isn't, what if they're in trouble or something? Why haven't they ever came back…but then again, there's…" Knuckles said.

"There's what?"

"Nothing…" Knuckles mumbled. "But I can't leave the island either…"

"I guess Sonic could watch it…or something." Tails suggested. "I mean, if you leave, I don't think Sonic would just ignore the emerald…I don't think he wants the world destroyed…" Tails thought for a moment. "Wow, I never really realised how important to the world you really are…"

"How am I important?" Knuckles asked.

"If you didn't guard the emerald, who would? You know how powerful that thing is. If anyone bad got ahold of it, I think that would be the end…" Tails explained.

"I guess…" Knuckles mumbled. "So that means, if I ever died, then…"

"I guess it's a good thing there are other echidnas then. Because then, kinda like what that weird note said, if you had a kid, they could guard it-"

Knuckles glared at Tails. "What?!" he shouted.

"Uh…" Tails stammered. "I was just saying that…"

"This is why…" Knuckles began. "Why I didn't…"

"Why you didn't what?" Tails asked quietly.

"Ugh…" Knuckles muttered. "I don't know…never mind…"

"Well, if you do decide to look for this place, I can go with you…but first we have to find Sonic. He must be back from his run by now. I'll go look for him!" Tails exclaimed.

"Okay…" Knuckles sighed as Tails flew off.


	2. Chapter 2: In Search of the City

Tails landed by his workshop to see Sonic sitting by a tree.

"Sonic!" Tails yelled, almost in a panic.

"What?" Sonic cried.

"I was wondering if you could watch over Angel Island for a bit." Tails replied. "Or I guess, specifically, the Master Emerald."

"What is Knuckles doing now?" Sonic sighed.

"We have to go…" Tails mumbled.

"Huh?" Sonic said. "What do you mean, 'we'? As in you and me, or you and Knuckles?"

"Knuckles and I have to go figure out what's going on with the echidnas in Echidnaopolis." Tails explained.

Sonic stared at Tails. "…Uh…what? Tails, are you sure you're okay?"

"We found this weird letter..." Tails handed the letter to Sonic, and he read it.

"What the…" Sonic mumbled. "Are you sure it's not just Egghead trying to trick Knucklehead for the fifty-millionth time?"

Tails shrugged. "I dunno. The thing is, if there really are echidnas in a creepy city, why haven't they ever came back? Either they're dead by now, or maybe they're trapped...and if they're trapped, we can't just leave them there to die. That's why we need you to stay at Angel Island for a bit in case this is a trick…and well, in case anyone tries to take the emerald in general."

Sonic sighed. "Fine…just don't take forever. By the way, what's with the offspring thing?"

"I don't know, but it's kinda random..." Tails agreed.

"Yeah..." Sonic said. "C'mon, let's go!" Sonic ran off, and Tails flew off after him towards the island.

Tails dropped Sonic onto the grass. "Really, why does an eight-year-old have to carry around teenagers all the time?" Tails complained, jokingly.

"Where is the knucklehead?" Sonic asked.

"Why do you always have to call him that?" Tails cried. "It's not very nice."

"You sound like Cream…" Sonic remarked. Tails walked around.

"He was here when I left…where'd he go?" he asked. "Knuckles?"

"Maybe he tricked us into the trick for his trick." Sonic suggested.

"What?" Tails asked. "He was acting a bit weird…I don't know…"

"Yeah, because he tricked us into the trick for his trick!" Sonic repeated.

"He did not trick us to a trick, trick whatever!" Tails shouted. "Knuckles, where'd you go?" Tails turned around, and Knuckles was standing right in his face. Tails nearly jumped out of his skin. "WHOA!"

"This is getting better by the freaking moment." Knuckles muttered.

"What do you mean? Did you find something else?" Tails asked.

"Cream came by, and apparently Rouge knows about this and is going around telling people I have a girlfriend..." Knuckles sighed.

"And she didn't try to sell you any of those freaking chocolates?" Sonic asked, walking over.

"No, I think she realised I wasn't in a good mood." Knuckles replied.

"Oh, that's surprising…it didn't matter how many times I told her I didn't have enough rings on me, she kept telling me to buy the dumb things!" Sonic complained.

"I know, right?" Tails agreed. He turned back to Knuckles. "Well, that's weird of Rouge to do that...she's so annoying!"

"Yeah...and creepy..." Knuckles muttered. "But this whole echidna thing...I don't...ugh..."

"Are you okay?" Sonic asked, a bit sarcastically.

"I'm fine…" Knuckles muttered, although clearly he was not.

"Well, I guess we should head out. See you later, Sonic!" Tails announced.

"Okay, bye…be careful…" Sonic sighed. "This is going to be fun…" Knuckles and Tails both ran off, leaving Sonic behind.

"This is really going to suck if Eggman decides to do something right now…" Sonic muttered to himself.

Tails and Knuckles landed themselves near the forest where Tails was sure there was a river nearby.

"I could have sworn there was a river somewhere in this forest." Tails exclaimed as he stored the papers into his fur.

"Okay…" Knuckles sighed. "Let's go then…" they both ran off into the forest, and sure enough they came across a river. They began walking along the bank in the same direction the river was flowing.

"I wonder how long this will take us. What if we miss it?" Tails remarked.

"What if…" Knuckles mumbled.

"Huh?"

"And what if we do miss it? At least we tried…" Knuckles sighed.

"Knuckles, I've never seen you this miserable before…" Tails remarked, worried. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"I'm fine! Stop asking me that!" Knuckles yelled.

"Okay, sorry…" Tails mumbled, looking away. He looked at the river, and saw some small fish for a second. When was the last time Knuckles ever acted like this? I don't know if he ever has… Tails thought. Actually, I think he became a bit grumpier around when Rouge first showed-up…

"I'm kind of scared to meet the other echidnas...but at the same time..." Tails mumbled after a few minutes of silence.

"You're scared?" Knuckles exclaimed.

"I guess you have more the reason to be scared..." Tails remarked. He looked at Knuckles creepily. "...Offspring..." he said in a creaky voice.

"Seriously?!" Knuckles yelled. "Don't!"

Tails thought for a moment. "I don't know..." he sighed.

"You don't know what?"

"I don't know, I just don't know…" Tails murmured.

"Okay…"

A while later, after a long silent walk, Tails and Knuckles finally decided to take a rest. They sat on a log by the river. It was just after noon now, and they were both hungry. Tails had been looking around the whole time, hoping to find some sort of food, but there didn't seem to be anything around.

"I'm starving." Knuckles complained.

"I was just thinking that…" Tails sighed. "This is taking a long time."

"Maybe we missed it. Maybe we should just go back." Knuckles suggested.

"Let's just go a bit farther…" Tails insisted. "After we take a rest, of course. I wonder how we're even supposed to get down there…I mean, aren't they trapped or something if they don't ever come up here?"

"Yeah, that's true, unless I dig underground…" Knuckles agreed.

"Yeah, but what if the city is really far down, and you hit an opening and fall down and die?" Tails asked.

"I think you're thinking too much about it…"

"Yeah, but still." Tails stood up. "I really just want to find it already."

"Why?"

"I don't know, it's annoying me…I mean I think it would be cool to actually meet some other echidnas…and I don't mean that I don't like you, I just want to know what the others are like too." Tails explained. "And to see that your species isn't dead which is a good thing."

"Are you sure it's a good thing…" Knuckles muttered. "I liked being the only one…"

"I guess being the only one is nice in a way…" Tails thought.

"And the only other echidnas I have ever met were my parents…I don't really want to get into that right now…"

"What even happened to them?" Tails wondered.

"Did you not hear what I just said?" Knuckles cried. "They disappeared. I don't know. I haven't seen them since, and I don't want to see them again."

"Well, alright…" Tails sighed. "We should go now. Let's not waste our time sitting around here. Maybe we'll actually find some food. I have a feeling in that Echidnaopolis place there'll only be ants."

"Oh yeah, that's true…" Knuckles sighed. "We better find something else then."

As they continued walking again, Tails spotted some huckleberries, but they were a bit unripe and green-looking. "We could eat these, I guess…" Tails pointed.

"Better than ants…" Knuckles ate some of them. "Okay these are really sour…"

"Blech!" Tails spat. "Would you rather eat a raw fish?"

"What? I don't like fish that much…and raw just sounds gross." Knuckles replied.

"I know, but I can't think of anything else." Tails sighed. "Hopefully they grow potatoes or carrots down there."

"Hopefully…" Knuckles looked down the river, and noticed that it became more of a shallow pool down a ways. "Why won't we go down there and figure out what we're doing?"

"Sure, I guess…" Tails replied. They walked over to the shallow, calm area of the river and looked around. Nearby Knuckles saw some sort of cave formed by some large rocks. A bad feeling fell over him, and he hoped that Tails would not notice it and they would keep walking.

However, to Knuckles's luck, Tails noticed the cave-like area as well. "Hey, what's that?" he asked.

"I don't know…" Knuckles mumbled. "Let's keep going."

"But maybe it leads to 'Echidnaopolis'." Tails remarked. "Let's just check it out." Without letting Knuckles say anything else, Tails ran into the cave. Knuckles followed him inside.

Tails looked around. It was pretty dark. He nearly walked straight into a wall. Tails felt around, noticing that it was a wall of metal. "That's strange…" Tails mumbled to himself, suddenly pressing a button on the wall by accident. "Uh-oh…"

"What?!" Knuckles yelled.

"I think I might have set off a trap…" Tails said hesitantly.

"Great…well, at least we-"

Suddenly, the metal wall Tails was leaning against opened and he fell inside.

"TAILS!" Knuckles yelled. He jumped forward and looked inside. Luckily, Tails was sitting against another wall beyond the one that just opened. "What just happened? I thought you would have been dead…"

"No…" Tails said, getting up. "I think it's an elevator."

"An ele…oh…" Knuckles sighed. "You mean, to that Echidnaopolis thing…"

"I guess…" Tails replied.

"Are you sure this is safe? I don't know if I really want to go in there…" Knuckles asked.

"I don't know." Tails replied. "You can wait here I guess. I'll try to see if I can work it. If I don't-" Tails stopped the doors from closing. "-come back, then I guess it's not safe."

"Um, okay…" Knuckles stood there for a moment as Tails looked around for the buttons. "You know what, I'd rather risk my life…" Knuckles walked in. "You wait there."

"Let's just go down together…" Tails suggested.

"Okay, but then…" Knuckles began.

"Sonic will notice we won't ever come back…" Tails remarked. He finally pushed a button, which half-lit-up red, flickered, then died a bit. They heard some shifting noises, and the elevator dropped by a foot.

"This doesn't seem like it's working…let's get out of here…" Knuckles cried, slightly panicking.

"How? I think we're trapped…" Tails cried, sounding a bit scared as well. He started jamming the buttons.

"How's that going to fix it? I can get us out!" Knuckles shouted. He was about to punch the door when the elevator dropped by a couple yards, then stopped and started making very scary grinding noises.

"Looks like we're going to die in an elevator…" Knuckles sighed.

"Don't say that…" Tails declared. "Try to be positive!"

"How can I be positive when we're stuck in a million-year-old elevator that leads to something scary known as 'Echidnaopolis'?!"

"I don't know!" Tails exclaimed as the elevator started shaking for some weird reason.

"It's like it's trying to kill us!" Knuckles shouted as he fell over. He got up and kicked the side of the elevator, and surprisingly it stopped shaking. After a moment, the elevator began descending at a slow, but jerky pace. "There!"

"Thank goodness…" Tails sighed with relief. As they stood there, Knuckles began to get a worse and worse feeling.

"You know Tails, I feel as if we're going to…" Knuckles mumbled.

"Going to where?" Tails asked. Knuckles did not answer. "I just want to get out of this elevator…"

"Yeah, at this point, I don't care what happens next anymore…" Knuckles muttered. Tails just looked at him, worried. Something was not right with Knuckles.

"Are you sure-"

"I'm fine, Tails! Stop asking me that freaking question!" Knuckles shouted.

"Sorry…" Tails murmured.

"No…I'm sorry for yelling at you…" Knuckles sighed. "I don't know…"

"I know there's something wrong…you've never acted like this really before…maybe a bit when Rouge first came around…" Tails remarked.

"Ugh, Rouge…don't even talk about that creep…" Knuckles grumbled.

"Yeah…she even flirts with me…kinda disturbing if you think about it…" Tails remarked.

"She flirts with you?! Wait…she hasn't ever asked you to…" Knuckles asked.

"Asked me to what?" Tails wondered.

"Has she asked you anything creepy?" Knuckles asked.

"No, I don't think so…she just calls me 'cutie' a lot and always wants to treat me to something." Tails replied.

"Oh, okay good…" Knuckles said. "Because, she's like, eighteen…and you're eight…"

"I know, that's why she's disturbing. I mean, she seriously flirts with every living male in sight!" Tails complained.

"Yeah, you think that's bad…" Knuckles muttered. "It sucks to be the one she's mainly obsessed with…"

"Probably because you're a treasure hunter, and you're the guardian of the emeralds and stuff. So she probably is mainly interesting in the gems." Tails explained.

"Yeah, that and-"

There was a creepy dinging sound, and they both could feel the elevator finally hit the ground.

"Well, I guess we're there…" Tails sighed.

"This is going to be great…" Knuckles grumbled.


	3. Chapter 3: Old Friends, New Enemy

The two waited a few moments for the elevator to open. However, it did not seem to want to open.

"Hurry up!" Knuckles yelled at the doors.

"It won't respond to you…" Tails remarked.

"I know that…" Knuckles cried. He was about to kick the doors when they began to open slowly. "Finally..."

As the doors opened more wide, Tails peered out. He looked around. Before was a very strange city. Closest to the elevator were some houses and a few echidnas walking around. They stopped and stared at Tails.

"Oh my gosh!" Tails exclaimed. "Knuckles, look! We actually made it!" Without letting Knuckles reply, Tails excitedly pulled him out of the elevator. Knuckles looked around. The first thing he noticed were the other echidnas staring at them like they had never seen anything like them before.

"What the…" Knuckles mumbled. It was a bit weird for him to see the other echidnas. "Is this that 'Echidnaopolis' thing?"

"I guess…" Tails replied. "Hey!" he ran up to one of the echidnas staring at them. "Are we in Echidnaopolis?" The echidna just stared at Tails and did not say anything. "Hello! Hey!" Tails waved his hand in front of the echidna's face. "My name is Tails! Who are you?"

Knuckles slowly walked up behind Tails. "Is he deaf?" he asked.

"I don't know…what are you doing behind me?" Tails asked.

"Um…" Knuckles mumbled.

"Please don't tell me…"

"OH MY GOOD HEAVENS! IT'S HIM! IT'S ACTUALLY HIM!" the echidna screamed randomly. The group that had clustered behind him started freaking out and running in circles.

"Hey! Can you just answer my question?" Tails screamed, frustrated. He began to notice that everyone was ignoring him, but were starting to cluster around Knuckles. "Hey!" Tails yelled. "Will anyone answer me?"

Knuckles tried backing away from all the echidnas but they were surrounding them. "Tails!" he yelled.

"Why are you acting scared?" Tails asked, confused. "It's not like they're hyenas…"

"So, you're like Knuckles, right?" asked one of the echidnas.

"Don't you guard a giant ruby or something?" asked one of the other ones.

"It's not a ruby!" yelled a third.

"Go away!" Knuckles shouted. "Isn't that two-tailed fox more interesting then just another of your species? Seriously. And how do you even know my name?"

"Your parents..." one of them replied.

"What's a fox?" asked a younger kid.

"Ugh…" Knuckles sighed. "Wait...my...pa-"

"ARE WE IN ECHIDNAOPOLIS?!" Tails screamed so loud, nearly everyone's ears exploded.

"Oh, yeah, we are." replied one of the echidnas, not even looking at Tails.

"Well, I kind of figured anyway. I mean, we're in an underground city full of echidnas…where's Knuckles?" Tails cried. He began to notice that there were so many echidnas crowding around Knuckles that he could not even find him anymore. "Knuckles!" Tails shouted.

"Tails!" Knuckles shouted back. "Could you move, please? I need to find my friend!" Knuckles began pushing through all the annoying echidnas until he finally spotted Tails. "Let's get out of here!" Knuckles cried. He grabbed Tails's arm and ran off.

They found themselves on a quieter street named Armadillo Ave. Tails noticed a strange store named The Mighty Barking Bean.

"That's a really weird name for a store…" Tails remarked.

"What?" Knuckles looked up. "Oh, yeah…you know, that sounds freakishly familiar…"

"Let's check it out…" Tails suggested. They walked inside the store, which turned out to be some sort of restaurant.

"Do they use rings down here?" Knuckles asked.

"I dunno, maybe they pay with ants…" Tails laughed. "Just kidding, but I'm sure they use something…you can ask them, I'll find a spot." Tails walked off.

"Hey, but…ugh…" Knuckles sighed. He walked over to the counter. "What do you use to pay for stuff around here?" he asked, looking at the counter.

"What kind of question is that?" asked the echidna at the till. "Why aren't you looking at me?"

"Uh…sorry…" Knuckles mumbled, still not looking up. "I've never been here before, do you use rings?"

"We use whatever anyone else uses. And yes, that's rings. Now what do you want?" the echidna asked.

"Great. I don't have any rings. So I guess…do you have any of those sample things? I'm really hungry." Knuckles asked.

"I don't know…I'll ask Bark…" the echidna at the till replied.

"Okay…wait…what?" Knuckles looked up. He realised that the echidna he was just talking to was not an echidna after all - it was an armadillo. "Wait…wait…" Knuckles walked backwards and ran over to Tails. "Tails!" he shouted.

"What?" Tails asked, looking up from a pamphlet he was reading.

"You know why the name of this restaurant-cafe-thing sounds so familiar? Because I was just talking to that armadillo, Mighty…" Knuckles exclaimed.

"Wait, wasn't that someone Sonic met a long time ago? Like around the same time we met you?" Tails asked. "How did they get here? So now we know where Mighty disappeared to…"

"And the polar bear is here too, Bark, because he just said…" Knuckles mumbled.

"That's weird…" Tails remarked. "I thought we would never see them again…"

"Same…" Knuckles agreed.

"That guy over there…" Knuckles and Tails heard Mighty say. They turned around and saw Bark and Mighty standing near them.

"Hey! I recognise them! They're…Sonic and Tails, aren't they? Or was it Knuckles?" Bark exclaimed.

"Oh yeah…" Mighty mumbled. "What the…and I think Sonic was the blue hedgehog…and I thought it was just some random echidna from this place…"

"Hey guys, how did you get stuck down here? I barely even remember you! Wasn't there also a weasel and a duck?" Tails asked.

"Yeah, Bean's here too…I don't know what happened to Fang, though." Bark replied. "I don't know, a while back we found the elevator…"

"Why would you go in the elevator?" Knuckles cried.

"It was Bean's idea…we didn't really want to go in it…now we're trapped in this creepy city." Bark replied.

"Hey, remember that creepy pink girl that was trying to make us give her the pink cookies for free?" Mighty asked.

"We sell pink cookies?" Bark asked.

"It wasn't my idea…" Mighty declared. "I just remember it randomly. She was really annoying. And she kept talking about her crush or something. It was weird…"

"Oh god…" Knuckles said. "Oh god…"

"What?" Mighty, Bark and Tails all asked.

"What if she was talking about me…" Knuckles cried. "Maybe she got a picture from my...oh yeah my parents!" Knuckles put his head on the table. "No I'm just thinking too much..."

"By the way, there's some kind of cave-in thing predicted to happen soon... I don't know, but you guys are unlucky to have came here now..." Mighty explained.

"Great…" Knuckles sighed. "Everything gets that much BETTER."

"Maybe we could help them...although I don't know how we could...if the elevator isn't working, I could try to fix it if someone can get me the right tools."

"I don't know…I guess." Mighty replied. "Anyway, didn't you want samples or something?"

"Yeah, I guess…" Knuckles replied. "Just…no ants, please."

"Uh, okay…" Mighty and Bark left Knuckles and Tails alone. In the small restaurant-like place, there was only one other customer - an old echidna reading a newspaper that Tails had sworn he had not looked up from his paper the whole time.

"Why do they have a restaurant-cafe-thing, anyway?" Knuckles asked. "Isn't that sort of…random?"

"Maybe it was the only thing they could do, I don't know." Tails replied. "But how are we supposed to escape? I mean, if Mighty, Bark and Bean haven't escaped by now, how are we going to?"

"What if they didn't want to leave?" Knuckles wondered.

"I'm pretty sure Bark called this city creepy…" Tails remarked.

"That's true…" Knuckles sighed. "I'm mainly terrified of finding my parents...and the whole 'offspring' thing. Why won't we just try to 'help' them while avoiding like every girl?"

"What?! That's probably impossible…I mean, we are in an underground city. Chances of running into a girl are going to be very high." Tails said. "Also, aren't there more girls than guys anyway? And are you seriously that scared of girls? It's not like they're going to kill you."

"Yeah, but if I didn't have a kid everyone would think I was stupid because like you said, everyone will die without me... This is horrible…" Knuckles grumbled.

"HERE ARE SOME PINK COOKIES! WATCH OUT, THEY MIGHT EXPLODE!" screamed someone as a plate of pink cookies landed in front of Knuckles and Tails.

"What the!" Knuckles yelled. They noticed a green duck standing by their table.

"Why would we want exploding pink cookies?" Tails asked. "Well, thanks…" he picked one up and looked at the lilac-coloured candies inside of the cookies. "Okay..."

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Knuckles screamed, jumping out of his seat. Tails and Bean both looked at the window beside them. There was a pink echidna with her face pressed-up against the window, staring at them. She jumped up and ran towards the door of the restaurant.

"GRAB AS MANY OF THOSE COOKIES AS WE CAN, WE HAVE TO GO!" Knuckles shouted. Shaking, he tried to grab the cookies, but he started dropping them all over the floor. Bean just watched them as they tried grabbing a bunch of cookies. Knuckles tried to make a sprint for the door, but the pink echidna ran in front of him and they ran right into each other. The pink cookies went flying all over the restaurant.

"KNUCKLES!" Tails screamed. "Who are you, Jordan Girard?"

"Jordan Girard?" Bean asked.

However, she ignored Tails and got up. Knuckles was still laying on the floor. She picked him up and began hugging him to death.

"Hey!" Tails screamed. He ran right into the echidna and Knuckles. She let go and Knuckles almost fell over again, but Tails grabbed him. "Let's go, Knuckles!" he cried, and dragged Knuckles out of the restaurant. However Tails could only make it a few steps down the street before dropping Knuckles who was now laying on the ground again. Tails had a few cookies with him as well.

"Get up, Knuckles, before she comes back out-" Tails began.

"I CAN'T BELIEVE HE'S ACTUALLY HERE!" screeched the pink girl, whose name was Julie-Su. She tried to grab Knuckles off the ground again but Tails pushed Knuckles aside.

"Go away!" Tails screamed, almost crying for some reason.

"Huh?" Julie-Su exclaimed. "What kind of weirdo are you?"

"Weirdo?" Tails mumbled. He looked at Knuckles, who looked terrified but wasn't moving. "Knuckles, please…let's go…"

"You should go away!" Julie-Su yelled.

"Leave me alone!" Tails yelled back. "I don't like you!"

"No! And by the way, my name is Julie-Su, not 'Jordan Girard'!" Julie-Su remarked.

"I don't care!" Tails screamed. "I guess I'll just…" he grabbed a couple cookies and stuck them in his mouth, then grabbed another and put it in Knuckles's mouth. He grabbed Knuckles's arms and began flying away from Julie-Su, leaving the other cookies he had with her.

"Come back here!" Julie-Su shouted. "Don't you go flying off with my soulmate, you freaky mutant fox!"

Tails began flying even faster. He wanted to get away from her as quickly as he could. And he knew Knuckles must have felt the same way as well.


	4. Chapter 4: Plan of Escape

"Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are...up above the world so high...like a diamond in the sky..." Sonic paused. "Hey, that sounds familiar..." He kicked a large stone out of boredom. Maybe I'll go check out the tunnels... He thought. Sonic ran up to one of the holes in the ground and began climbing in. How does Knuckles do this? Sonic wondered. He felt a bit claustrophobic in the tunnel so he jumped out. "This SUCKS!" Sonic yelled, and hoped someone else would come by to take over for the job.

Meanwhile, Tails was dragging Knuckles's body into a hotel named "The Arthur Hotel". Tails thought that was a weird name for a hotel, but he did not care at that point. He dragged Knuckles up to the till where an orange echidna wearing a top hat and a monocle sat.

"Is he dead?" The echidna asked.

"No..." Tails replied, "I think he's just paralysed...we need a room, but...we have no money...I could pay you in some other way..."

"Wait...is that Knuckles or whatever? How marvelous! My name is Sir Krinklestein K. Snegon, but you can just call me Krinklestein." the echidna exclaimed. "You can have a free room!"

"Alright, thanks...Krinklestein..." Tails said.

In no time, Tails had gotten themselves their own room, with two beds, something that appeared to be some sort of TV, and a really creepy bathroom. The room was complete with photos of ants.

Tails dragged Knuckles up onto the bed, who surprisingly still had the cookie in his mouth, but it looked soggy and gross.

"Ew..." Tails mumbled. "Well, just stay there. I'll lock the door. Hopefully we're safe from that Emily Su or whatever..." Tails got up and made sure every lock on the door was secure - the handle lock, the actual lock and even the extra chain lock. He walked back over to the second bed which was closer to the balcony and shut the curtains, even though they were fairly high up. Tails then grabbed a remote and tried to turn on what looked like a TV.

The screen turned on, but it was green and everything was formed from black pixels. It looked terrible; it looked like ants moving across the screen.

"What is this?" Tails asked himself. He flipped the station. It looked like pixelated echidnas running around in some sort of pixel cartoon.

"Isn't it exciting, Riv-Er? We finally get to solve the legend of the guardian echidna!"

"Definitely!"

The pixelated echidnas were walking a bit until suddenly another dropped down. He looked like a pixelated Knuckles.

"Roar, I'm Spikles, go away little babies! It's my emerald!" He said in a really high-pitched voice.

"What the heck!" Tails yelled.

"Oh no he's big mean and scary let's run!" It showed the two echidnas running away from "Spikles". Then something that looked coincidentally like Sonic and Tails appeared.

"Don't worry, sweeties! I'll save you darlings from the evil Spikles!" the Sonic-looking one said in a British accent.

"Oh, it's Josh, and his pal Moomoo!" Josh and Moomoo began beating up Spikles. Then Spikles exploded.

"Yay, we killed that horrible demon!" Moomoo exclaimed in a really deep voice. Disturbed, Tails quickly shut off the TV.

"How horrid..." Tails mumbled, almost crying. He looked at Knuckles. "I would never do that to you..."

Meanwhile, back at the Mighty Barking Bean, Bean the Dynamite was busy picking up pink cookies.

"What the heck happened? Where did they go? Where did the pink cookies come from?" Asked Bark.

"They ran away from Jordan Girard." Bean replied.

"What? Who the heck is Jordan Girard?" Bark exclaimed.

"Some weird pink girl echidna..." Bean replied.

"Oh...Julie-Su or whatever?" Bark wondered.

"I don't know, Tails said Jordan Girard... Knuckles had some sort of panic attack, it rained pink cookies and that old guy over there hasn't even batted an eye once." Bean explained.

"Oh, okay..." Bark said, and walked away leaving Bean to pick up all the pink cookies.

It was later, and Tails had received a bunch of free food from the lobby. He returned to the room with a giant plate of fruit and vegetables since the only other thing they had was a lot of ants and termites.

By the time Tails had returned, Knuckles was finally regaining some actual consciousness again.

"Where are we?" He asked as Tails set the plate of stuff on the bed in front of him.

"Some creepy hotel named The Arthur Hotel." Tails replied. "We kind of lost a lot of those cookies, but I got a bunch of free food from the lobby. The room was free, too."

"Oh, yeah..." Knuckles mumbled, and fell back down.

"Knuckles! Please don't do this again..." Tails cried.

Knuckles lifted his head back up. "That girl...we…"

"You mean Carly Rae Jepsen or whatever?" Tails asked.

"Carly Rae…what?!" Knuckles yelled. "I thought she said Julie-Su."

"Oh, yeah… she was really mean to me..." Tails mumbled.

"She was?" Knuckles asked. "I'm sorry...how mean was she? What did she do?"

"She called me names." Tails replied"

"That's stupid...figures..." Knuckles grumbled. "Makes me dislike her even more..."

"I locked the door a bunch. Hopefully she can't get in. But we need to hurry and find a way out of here before we end up dying from the cave-in." Tails remarked as he grabbed some carrots.

"Can't we just take the elevator back up?" Knuckles asked.

"Yeah, that's...oh..." Tails said. "It probably doesn't work going back up or something..."

"But that makes no sense!" Knuckles argued. "Tomorrow we'll get up early to avoid Julie-Su, and we'll check out the elevator."

"Alright." Tails agreed.

The next morning, Tails was enjoying his sleep-in when suddenly he was being shaken awake.

"Go away, Sonic..." He murmured.

"We have to go, Tails! It's like six o'clock! She shouldn't be walking around out there at this time!" Knuckles exclaimed.

"Oh yeah!" Tails jumped out of bed suddenly. He nearly fell into the glass door of the balcony. "Are we still staying in this room?"

"I don't know, not if we get the elevator working...and it's not like we have anything valuable in here, anyway." Knuckles replied. So they ran out and down to the lobby.

No one was even in the lobby. It was dark. They ran out the front door and looked around. All they could see were some random street lights that were on at a low light.

"I think it's this way," Tails pointed. They began running down the dirt street. There did not seem to be anyone about, luckily. Eventually they made themselves back to the elevator. Knuckles hit the button.

Clanking sounds could be heard from the elevator.

"See, it works." Knuckles exclaimed. However, suddenly they heard a large crash, and the doors never opened. Knuckles just stared at the closed doors with a dead expression.

"Uh...I think you just broke it...completely..." Tails stammered.

Knuckles looked about ready to kill himself. He fell down on his knees and shoved his face into the ground.

"Uh...Knuckles?" Tails mumbled.

"We're going to die..." He mumbled into the ground.

"No we aren't, Knuckles. It's alright. Everything will be fine. We'll find a way out, and hopefully we won't see Juliet Starling again."

"It's Julie-freaking-SU!" Knuckles yelled, suddenly getting up.

"Sorry!" Tails cried, backing away. "Don't hurt me..."

"Why would I hurt you?" Knuckles asked. "I'm sorry, I'm just frustrated, okay?"

"Is there a problem?" Asked a creepy deep voice. Knuckles and Tails turned around to see a dark-red and white echidna with a Kirk moustache and a cowboy hat. "My name is Googoo. Are you Knuckles and…who are you?"

"I'm Tails..." Tails replied.

"Googoo?" Knuckles mumbled under his breath.

"I think we just completely broke the elevator…we found this weird ancient note saying how everyone moved or something..." Tails explained.

"Oh, yes, long ago we left that note, hoping someone would find it…hopefully Knuckles… That elevator didn't really work anyhow, only sort of to come down...so you didn't really ruin everything. Why won't you two come over to our house for breakfast?" Googoo offered.

Tails looked at Knuckles. Knuckles gave Tails a "I don't care what you do" look.

"Alright, sure, thanks." Tails replied. They followed Googoo over to a road named Snorty Street.

"We live just at the end of Snorty Street here." Googoo pointlessly informed as they walked down.

"Snorty Street?" Knuckles whispered. They walked up to a house with address 16 and entered it. Inside they could the sound of pancake mix sizzling in a frying pan, and it smelt like burnt ants.

"Blech..." Knuckles mumbled. They walked into the kitchen, where a very creepy pink echidna wearing weird track clothes and had freakishly long eyelashes was making pancakes. At the table there were five spots set-up, and an old couple was already sitting down. Googoo went to go set up two more spots for Tails and Knuckles.

"Thanks! This is very kind of you!" Tails exclaimed.

"No problem." Googoo replied. Tails sat at the end of the table closest to the front door, while Knuckles sat at the side by an empty spot. The creepy pink echidna walked over and set a plate of pancakes in the middle of the table.

"Are there ants in the pancakes?" Knuckles asked.

"No, but I did make my famous ant syrup! By the way, you can call me Momma."

"Um, okaaay..." Knuckles replied. He looked at the old couple. "Uh, excuse me, who are you?"

"You can just call us Gramgram and Grandpop, dear." Said the creepy old lady.

"Okay..." Knuckles said. Googoo sat at the other end and Momma sat beside him and the empty spot by Knuckles.

"We're starting, now!" Momma shouted, sort of loudly. Knuckles was about to grab one of the pancakes with his fork when suddenly someone grabbed him.


	5. Chapter 5: Knuckles' Worst Nightmare

"Uuuhhhh...uuuuhhhh..." He mumbled.

"KNUCKLES!" Tails screamed. He nearly flung out of his chair.

"Julie-Su, sit down! Don't be so intruding on our guests! Not everyone likes being squeezed to death while eating!" Googoo yelled.

"Sorry!" Julie-Su exclaimed, and let go of Knuckles. She hopped into the chair beside him and started piling pancakes onto her plate. "Oh my god, Knuckles, don't you realise how excited I am?" Julie-Su squealed.

"Uuuhh-huh..." Knuckles mumbled, looking away. He tried to block her out of his view with his spines. He tried taking the pancake with his fork but his arm was shaking so much it dropped onto the table.

"Are you okay?" Googoo asked.

"Uuuhh-huhh..." Knuckles repeated, picking the pancake up off the table and dropping it onto his plate.

"Would you like some ant syrup?" Julie-Su asked.

"Noo..." Knuckles mumbled. He began eating the pancake with his hand rather than his fork. Tails stared at him.

"You should use the fork..." Googoo remarked.

"Can everyone just stop staring at me and eat their breakfast?" Knuckles cried.

"Sorry..." Momma, who's name was really Momma-Su said, and everyone started eating.

Knuckles shoved about five pancakes in his mouth then got up. "I'm going to the washroom." He barely said, and ran off.

"He doesn't even know where it is..." Tails mumbled.

"Oh dear, maybe he's bulimic." Momma-Su cried.

"Knuckles isn't bulimic..." Tails remarked. "I can go-"

"I'll go check on him!" Julie-Su interrupted, and ran off.

She ran up to the bathroom door and ran right in without knocking or anything.

"AAAAAH!" Knuckles yelled. "What if..."

"You didn't lock the door, silly! Are you bulimic?" Julie-Su asked.

"No! Go away!" Knuckles yelled. "And you shouldn't run into the bathroom like that…"

"But you didn't lock the door!" Julie-Su repeated.

"So? Can you go away please?" Knuckles asked. However, Julie-Su ignored him and just kept staring at him creepily. "Hello!" Julie-Su continued to slowly creep closer and stare at him. Knuckles freaked-out and pushed her away.

"Hey! What was that for? I was in the middle of soultouch!" Julie-Su screeched.

"What the heck is soultouch?" Knuckles yelled. "Go away, seriously!"

"Don't you know? I guess you don't. Every echidna has the 'soultouch ability'. It's a way of finding the right soulmate. And I have found mine." Julie-Su explained.

Knuckles stared at her. "Wh…what?" he cried. "You have to be…GO AWAY!"

"No!" Julie-Su argued. "You should have soultouched with me already!"

"Well, I haven't, so for the last time, COULD YOU PLEASE LEAVE ME ALONE?!" Knuckles screamed.

"Julie-Su! Come back to the kitchen and leave Knuckles alone for a moment!" called Momma-Su from the kitchen.

"Alright…" Julie-Su sighed and ran out of the bathroom. Knuckles stood there. He wanted to leave, but he did not really want to ditch Tails at Julie-Su's house. He was not sure what to do.

Meanwhile, at the table, Tails had lost his appetite and was slowly picking at his solitary pancake.

"What's wrong Tails, you don't like them?" asked Gramgram.

"No, it's not that…I'm just not hungry anymore…" Tails sighed. Okay how did you know my name if I only told Googoo? He though.

Julie-Su looked at Tails. "Oh, you're here."

"I was here the whole time!" Tails cried.

"I must have not noticed you." Julie-Su muttered.

"May I be excused to go see Knuckles?" Tails asked politely.

"Just give him a moment, dear." Momma-Su replied. Tails sighed.

"So when is this cave-in thing predicted, anyway?" Tails wondered. "Mighty told us about it…"

"Not for another week or two, but it will happen. We should start looking for a way to escape sometime soon, but there's no rush just yet." Googoo replied. "If you would like, we could let you two stay here for the next couple days."

"Uh, the hotel's free…" Tails replied quietly.

"Knuckles could sleep in my room, and Tails can sleep in the basement!" Julie-Su exclaimed as she grabbed another pancake.

"Why would I have to sleep in the basement? I think Knuckles would rather sleep down there…and the hotel is fine, too!" Tails cried.

"Because." Julie-Su said blankly. "I don't want you in my room."

"Julie-Su! Be nice to your guests!" Grandpop scolded.

"Sorry…" Julie-Su sighed. Tails anxiously waited, hoping they would finally let him go or Knuckles would come back. He watched Julie-Su stab at her pancakes violently with her knife. We should really get out of here, he thought.

Knuckles walked out of the bathroom and looked around the foyer. The kitchen was just there and any way he could go passed the kitchen entryway. They would most likely see him. He could not run out the door, because they would notice that. He could not run up the stairs, because they would hear him walking up. He did not want to go into the kitchen, because Julie-Su was in there. What am I supposed to do? he thought. So he sat down in the corner of the foyer and waited.

"Can I go now?" Tails asked again. His pancake had been shredded into fifty million little crumbs. The scraping of Julie-Su's knife against her plate was hurting his ears as well. Is she doing that on purpose because I have large ears, or something? Tails wondered.

"Alright, fine, go ahead." Momma-Su finally said. Tails jumped off his seat and ran into the foyer. He found Knuckles sitting in the corner of the foyer staring at the floor.

"Knuckles!" Tails cried. Knuckles jumped up, thinking it was Julie-Su. But it was only Tails, to his relief.

"I thought you were Julie-Su…can we go now?" Knuckles asked.

"I dunno, we can I guess-" Tails began. However Julie-Su shoved him aside suddenly.

"Want to go play in the backyard?!" she screamed.

"No!" Knuckles yelled.

"Come on, it will be so much fun!" she grabbed Knuckles's arms and began dragging him back into the kitchen. Tails ran after them.

"We're going to go out shopping, kids! See you in a bit!" Momma-Su announced.

"At seven o'clock in the morning…?" Tails asked.

"The stores are less busy. Plus, there's something I need today that I forgot to by the other day." Momma-Su replied.

"Julie-Su, you be nice to your friends, okay?" Googoo lectured.

"Yeah, okay." Julie-Su mumbled.

"We're not friends…" Knuckles muttered.

"Yeah, we aren't…we're soulmates!" Julie-Su whispered creepily into the side of his head.

"Uuuhh…no…" Knuckles mumbled. They stood there, Julie-Su still holding onto Knuckles's arms as Googoo and Momma-Su left the house with some bags.

"Well, I think we'll have a nap in the living room." Gramgram announced. They got up and slowly walked off into another room by the kitchen. As soon as they were out of their sight, Knuckles tried to get Julie-Su's robotic hands off of his arms.

"Are you half robot?" Tails asked.

"Yeah, I guess. Something happened when I was younger. Now let's go have some fun outside." she smiled creepily at Tails before opening the door to what must have been their backyard.

"If you don't let go of me now, I swear I'll break your robotic arms off!" Knuckles growled.

"Fine!" Julie-Su cried, and finally let go of him. "I'll hug you instead!"

"NO!" Knuckles yelled. He began running away but he ran into the side of the house and fell over.

Julie-Su turned to Tails. "Want to have some fun?" she asked.

"Uh…" Tails mumbled, creeped-out.

"I'll show you fun!" she grabbed his ear and pulled him out into the yard which was mainly dirt. Around the yard were what looked like toys with their limbs and heads ripped-off laying everywhere.

"What's with the toys?" asked Tails, beginning to shake. "Let go of me! It hurts!"

"These are some of my old toys." Julie-Su said, not letting go of Tails's ear. "Want to burn them?"

"I don't think you should do that…" Tails mumbled.

"But it would be fun…" Julie-Su smiled.

Knuckles slowly got up and walked around the back of the house. He saw a bunch of feathers on the ground.

"Are there birds down here?" he asked himself. He looked around and began seeing random wings and things on the ground. He started to feel sick. As he continued walking, he noticed an old board laying against the house. As he approached it, it looked like a small bird, a "flicky" was tied to the board. "What the…" Knuckles mumbled. He ran over, and noticing it was not dead so he untied it.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Julie-Su screeched, suddenly behind Knuckles.

"Are you killing those birds?" Knuckles yelled.

"Whoever said I was doing that?" Julie-Su argued.

"Well there was one tied to a board! And there are wings and stuff all over the ground!" Knuckles cried.

"They're just birds…" Julie-Su mumbled.

"You ARE, aren't you!" Knuckles screamed. "They're living things too, you know! Where's Tails?!" Knuckles looked around. "Tails!"

"He's where he won't bother us anymore!" Julie-Su exclaimed, and began hugging Knuckles again.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!" Knuckles screamed, and pulled Julie-Su off of himself. He ran across the yard. "Tails!"

"He's not here, Knuckles! It's just you and me now! No more of that annoying little fox to bother us!" Julie-Su yelled.

"He's my friend!" Knuckles cried. "I don't know who you are, or why you're doing this, but could you just leave me and Tails alone? We didn't come here to be harassed by you!"

"Why won't you come to my room now?" Julie-Su asked.

"What? No! I don't want to be here! Where the heck is Tails?" Knuckles asked.

"He's gone now…" Julie-Su replied, stepping closer to Knuckles.

"You didn't kill him, did you?" Knuckles cried.

"Of course not! But he's not here…"

Knuckles started backing away until Julie-Su backed him into the corner of the yard where there was a fence. "Can you stop?" he asked.

"What's wrong with you?" Julie-Su yelled.

"Uh…" Knuckles looked away. Then suddenly he turned around and tried jumping over the fence.

"Hey!" Julie-Su screamed, but Knuckles fell over the fence. He got up and ran away.


	6. Chapter 6: Things Get Worse

Back at the island, Sonic got so bored he decided to try climbing the trees. He realised it was very hard to climb the palm trees though, since they weren't leaning or had any branches or anything.

"What am I supposed to do?" he cried. "What does Knuckles do when he's here twenty-four/seven?" Then Sonic remembered how Knuckles normally read books all the time. Where does he keep his books, though? Sonic thought. I don't really want to try climbing through one of those tunnels again… Sonic began looking around for a tunnel anyway. He found one, and this time tried climbing in head-first. As he looked inside, he realised that it was actually some sort of room. He ended-up falling in and landed against a bunch of stuff.

Sonic got up and looked at the stuff. There were a lot of books but they did not look as if they had been touched in a while. He picked one up and tried to see what it was in the poor light.

"The Wilson Family…" he read. "The heck? What kind of books does he read?" He threw it aside and looked at a bunch of other books. He found a lot of other weird novels, and he even found that weird journal thing Espio had given him a while back. "I wonder what Espio even wrote in this…" Sonic thought out loud. He opened the journal and turned past the page where Espio had drawn a really bad picture of himself. Sonic read one line and was already bored of reading about Espio, so he tossed it aside as well. These books suck! Sonic thought. He walked a few steps over and pushed over a large empty box, revealing a tunnel. I wonder what's in here, Sonic thought. He climbed up into the tunnel and began crawling through it. Suddenly he fell from the tunnel onto something that seemed like a dresser and knocked over a bunch of framed photos.

"Ow!" Sonic yelled. He got up and tried to look at the photos, but they were impossible to see. So he grabbed a bunch of them and started walking around, nearly running into all the walls.

After a few moments, Sonic began to get a very uneasy feeling, as if someone else was in the room as well.

"Hello?" Sonic cried. "Is someone in here? Knuckles?" Sonic quickly turned around when he felt someone standing over him. "What the…I should get out of here…" he tried to find the spot where he fell out, but he could not find it. He began to feel trapped in the creepy room. "Someone…someone…HELP!" Sonic yelled, falling over and dropping the photos he had.

"KNUCKLES!" Tails screamed. "KNUCKLES! SAVE ME! SONIC!" Julie-Su had tied his Tails up and attached the rope to a metal post. Tails could not, for the life of him, untie the rope. He was around her house, beside another, in an area where it seemed as if no one was around at all. "She's trying to kill me, isn't she!" Tails cried. "Knuckles…"

Meanwhile, Knuckles finally stopped running, and was taking a rest somewhere in the main area of town. He wanted to tell someone that Julie-Su had done something to Tails, and that she was killing small animals, but he was a bit nervous. Maybe I should go find Mighty and the others…he thought. But I don't really know which way their restaurant thing is…

"Hey, are you…" exclaimed a random echidna.

"Yeah, I'm Knuckles, okay? Stop annoying me, I'm trying to find my friend!"

"Oh, you mean Julie-Su?" asked the echidna.

"NO, she is NOT my friend! Or soulmate, or whatever! She did something to Tails, and she's killing animals!" Knuckles yelled.

"She's killing people?!" the echidna cried.

"No, not us…I meant she was killing those little birds, I think." Knuckles replied. "But I need to find Tails…he's a yellowish fox with two tails."

"Oh, I think I saw him yesterday once. So is that what a fox is, then?"

"Yeah, but they usually don't have two tails…anyway, I have to go find him…" Knuckles turned around and ran smack into Googoo and Momma-Su. "What the!"

"Oh, hello there Knuckles, what are you doing out here?" Googoo asked.

"I'm trying to find Tails…" Knuckles mumbled. "Julie-Su did something to him…"

"Like what?" Googoo asked.

"I'm not sure…also, did you know that's she's killing birds?" Knuckles asked.

"No, I didn't…but I can talk to her about it later." Googoo replied. "Come on back with us, and we'll see where your friend is."

"Okay…" Knuckles sighed.

Tails fell onto the kitchen table.

"If you say one word to my parents, I'll beat you to death!" Julie-Su yelled.

"Okay…" Tails whimpered, shaking. He looked up and saw the front door open. Tails had never felt so relieved in his life when he saw Knuckles walk inside after Julie-Su's parents. "Knuckles!" he exclaimed, and ran over to him.

"He looks alright to me…" Googoo remarked.

"Where were you?" Knuckles asked.

"I was…fine…" Tails murmured. Knuckles looked up at Julie-Su.

"Okay…" he said. He looked over at Googoo and Momma-Su. "I think we should just go now…"

"But Knuckles…don't you realise the main reason why we wanted you to come here?" Googoo asked.

"…Yeah…" Knuckles muttered.

"You see, a while back Julie-Su got ahold of a photo of you from your parents, and we soon realised that you two must have been soulmates. We knew we needed you to come down here and meet your soulmate, which has turned out to be Julie-Su." Googoo explained.

"Wait…what?" Knuckles cried. He starting backing up, about to run out the door.

"Don't be leaving now. Tonight you'll stay in Julie-Su's room. Tails can stay in the basement." Googoo informed.

"But…uuuhhh…uhhh…" Knuckles began shaking. Googoo walked between him and the door. "You won't try to escape now…"

"Hey! You can't do this!" Tails cried.

"Shut-up, Tails!" Julie-Su screeched.

"He's right…you can't just trap us here…please let us go…" Knuckles mumbled.

"You can go tomorrow. We can try to find a way out then. But tonight you must stay in Julie's room." Googoo said.

"But I don't…" Knuckles fell onto his knees.

"Knuckles!" Tails cried.

"Seriously, why do you have to be here? You're so annoying!" Julie-Su whined.

"I'm sorry…" Tails whimpered. "Knuckles, are you okay?"

"No…" Knuckles mumbled.

"You actually…" Tails began. He actually said no this time…he thought.

"Just go up to her room, Knuckles. We'll all stay down here." Googoo said.

"Okay…" Knuckles mumbled very quietly. "Come with me Tails…" He slowly walked up the stairs with his head down the whole way as Tails followed him.

They walked down the hallway until they came to a door with a really bad drawing of Knuckles on it. In pen someone had written "Julie-Su's Room" on it.

"Figures…" Knuckles grumbled. He kicked the door open and fell onto the carpet, not even looking around the room. Tails gasped as he looked around the room. The walls were bright pink and covered in drawings and a couple old photos of Knuckles everywhere. A lot of her things had drawings of Knuckles taped on them, and she even had handmade stuffed toys of him on her bed! That creeped Tails out.

"This room is freaking creepy…" Tails mumbled. He closed the door.

"I don't care at this point." Knuckles muttered into the ground.

"Knuckles, what's wrong? I take it you really don't like her…" Tails remarked.

"Yeah…" Knuckles mumbled. "There's more to that, too, but you're too young…"

"Okay…" Tails said. "You can't tell anyone this, but Julie-Su had me tied-up by the side of the house…then she told me that if I told her parents, she would beat me to death…"

"What?" Knuckles yelled. He got up and looked at Tails. Tails noticed that his face looked a bit weird.

"Are you…" Tails mumbled. "Are you actually…crying?"

"What?" Knuckles yelled again.

"Never mind…but yeah, she did say that."

"I can't believe she would actually say that…" Knuckles muttered. "We really, really need to get out of here, Tails…don't worry, I won't let anything happen to you…"

"Okay…" Tails mumbled. Knuckles looked around the room a bit, but did not seem to care at that point.

"I don't want to sleep in here." he complained. "Especially with her in here."

"Yeah, what if she kills you in the middle of the night?" Tails remarked.

"There are worse things she could do in the middle of the night…" Knuckles muttered.

"Huh?" Tails cried. "There's a window. Why won't we just escape?"

"It's way too small to fit through though." Knuckles remarked.

"I guess…" Tails sighed and sat on the bed. He picked up one of the dolls and threw it, accidentally at Knuckles.

"What the…" Knuckles cried and threw it at the wall.

"You do realise it's only about eight right now. We still have to survive the whole rest of the day with her." Tails remarked.

"Oh my god you're right! …" Knuckles cried. "What are we gonna do? I can't live through this any longer..."

"I don't know...it's like they've trapped us in here...I mean, we could make a run for it, but..." Tails sighed.

"Yeah, I guess..." Knuckles agreed, "if we do, we better hurry because she'll probably come in here any-"

"Knuckles!" Julie-Su screamed, bursting into the room. "Come downstairs!"

"Why?" Knuckles argued.

"Because. You'll see." Julie-Su replied, and ran off.

"Okay..." Knuckles mumbled.

"I guess we should go see..." Tails sighed. They walked down the hallway and back down the stairs.

"Knuckles!" screamed a really creepy echidna wearing really creepy clothing. Knuckles nearly had a heart attack. He ran up a step behind Tails.

"Who are you?" Tails asked. "And what's with that kid?" He pointed at a very young kid that looked a bit like Knuckles but with a shorter nose and messed-up. He was running around Julie-Su with a weird rattle and screaming random stuff.

"Hi! You must be that Tails person they mentioned! I'm Wynmacher! This is my son we call him Kneecaps!"

"But he doesn't have spikes on his knees..." Tails remarked.

"Uh...hi..." Knuckles mumbled. "Where's Lara-Le?"

"I don't know, she decided to stay home. Said it was for our own good or some silly-luscious thing like that." Wyn explained.

"Silly-luscious?" Knuckles mumbled. "Great, so she is here…"

Kneecaps ran up the stairs and noticed Knuckles. "NA-NA!" he screamed really loudly, and started banging Knuckles's legs with his rattle.

"Stop!" Knuckles cried.

"Knuckles, who are these people?" Tails whispered.

"They're my step-dad and my half-brother I guess..." Knuckles whispered back. "I don't really hate them but they're kind of annoying...it's more my actual parents I hate, especially my mom..."

"Oh, okay..." Tails nodded.

"Well, we have to go, it was nice seeing you again! I'm glad you have yourself a friend now!" Wyn exclaimed. He picked up Kneecaps and left.

"Okay..." Knuckles said.

Momma-Su turned to Tails and Knuckles. "We're going to leave to go to my friend's 30th anniversary party in half an hour. Make sure you two look good, because you're coming too."

"Yeah, Julie-Su, you should go get ready too..." Googoo remarked.

"Okay, dad!" Julie-Su ran upstairs. That's when Knuckles and Tails noticed that Googoo and Momma-Su were somewhat dressed-up.

"It's not like we can really do anything..." Knuckles remarked.

"Yeah, go wash your face..." Googoo replied.

"Do I have food on my face?" Knuckles asked, confused.

"No, just go do it..."

"So I wasn't the only one who noticed..." Tails mumbled.

"What?" Knuckles asked.

"You were crying..." Tails whispered. Knuckles looked at him, then ran into the bathroom. When he turned on the tap the water was gross.

"Ew, I'm not using this..." He mumbled. So he wiped his face with his hands a bunch before running back out. "Is this okay?" he asked.

"Uh, sure..." Googoo replied. Knuckles walked over to Tails.

"Is it really that obvious?" he asked Tails.

"I dunno..." Tails shrugged. Suddenly Julie-Su came running down the stairs, nearly running straight into Tails. She had put on a really obnoxious dress and put way too much eye shadow on.

"What the heck!" Knuckles yelled.

"Don't you think I look BEAUTIFUL, cousin?" she asked.

"What?!" Knuckles yelled.

"Yeah, don't you know we're relatives? I guess you don't." Julie-Su replied. "Well, apparently we are distant relatives."

"Ew! And you...ew!" Knuckles yelled. He ran over to Tails. "This is getting worse all the time!"

"Well I guess we should go now." Googoo announced. Gramgram and Grandpop walked out of nowhere and followed them outside.

"It's not too far down the street." Momma-Su remarked.

Knuckles was walking on the outside with Tails in between him and Julie-Su. They both started walking around, trying to put the grandparents in between them and Julie-Su, but she somehow ambushed them by appearing right behind Knuckles.

"This anniversary could be us in the next thirty years!" she squealed. "Except we wouldn't really get married so we won't have to deal with divorcing in case something happened with our soultouch bond."

"There is no 'bond' in between us, you creep!" Knuckles retorted.

"Yeah, whatever." Julie-Su rolled her eyes. "Your soultouch ability just needs some healing time. You were isolated for too long."

"No, I don't HAVE a 'soultouch ability'!" Knuckles yelled.

"But every echidna does!" Julie-Su argued. "You just need to find your inner love."

"What the heck does that mean?" Knuckles asked. Julie-Su just stared at him creepily.

"Here we are!" Momma-Su screeched, and stopped in front of a very ugly house. On it someone put pieces of tape to spell-out the number thirty. It looked terrible. The house was complete with half-deflated balloons laying on the ground.

"This looks creepy..." Tails cried.

"You kids run around the house into the backyard, okay? We'll go through the house." Momma-Su declared.

"Okay! Come on, my honey bunny!" Julie-Su exclaimed, and ran around the house. Knuckles and Tails walked after her.

"You know, we could just run off now..." Tails remarked.

"Yeah, that's true, let's-" however Julie-Su ran back and grabbed some of Knuckles's spines and began dragging him across the dirt yard.

"OW!" Knuckles screamed. "LET GO!"

"You're taking forever! I want to show everyone my new boyfriend!" Julie-Su screamed in his head. Tails ran after them.

"Just let go! It hurts!" Knuckles cried. Julie-Su finally let go of Knuckles and shoved him into the backyard. He fell over.

"Is that him?" screeched some other girl.

"Isn't that the guardian thing?" screeched another. As Knuckles tried getting up, he realised that a mob of teenaged girl echidnas were running towards him.

"Oh...my...GOD!" he yelled and jumped-up. "TAILS!" he screamed. Tails was being surrounded by some other girls.

"Who's this freak?" asked one of them.

"I think it's a dingo!"

"A dingo? Aren't they horrible?"

"I'm a fox!" Tails yelled.

"He's weird!" yelled one of them, and kicked Tails in the shin.

"Ow!" Tails began crying.

"Tails!" Knuckles yelled, and ran over to him. He picked him up before one of the echidnas could kick him again.

"Don't you EVER hurt him!" Knuckles yelled.

"Who are you?"

"Looks like that guardian legend guy...I mean look at his hands..."

"Yeah..." Knuckles muttered, and turned around to see Julie-Su standing right there with a bunch of other teenaged girls behind her, who must have been her friends or something.

"Why are you carrying that idiot?" Julie-Su asked.

"Don't call him that..." Knuckles muttered. "Go play with your annoying friends and leave me and Tails alone." he put Tails down, who was still crying a bit. But as Knuckles tried to move away from them, he noticed they were following them still.

"Did you not listen to me?" Knuckles cried.

"Want to go out tonight?" asked one of them.

"No!" Knuckles yelled.

"Hey! He's my boyfriend!" Julie-Su screeched.

"I'm NO ONE's freaking BOYFRIEND!" Knuckles screamed, and began running over towards a large tent set-up in the yard. Tails ran after him.


	7. Chapter 7: Fun with the Teens

Knuckles looked at the food set up under the tent. Everything - in some way - involved ants.

"Figures." Knuckles sighed. Tails watched the group of teenaged girls stand there, watch them, whisper and giggle.

"Seriously..." Tails mumbled. "Those kinds of girls are so annoying. At least Amy isn't really like that."

Knuckles looked over. "Yeah...Amy would probably be more tolerable if she wasn't a crazed Sonic fangirl." As they looked over at the annoying girls, they noticed them giggling even more.

"You know, let's go over here..." Knuckles suggested. He walked over to a table and was about to sit down when Julie-Su jumped out of nowhere.

"Wanna play a game?" She asked.

"No!" Knuckles yelled.

"It's just a game where we throw metal rings at a stick in the ground." Julie-Su explained. "We can play on teams of three."

"What are the teams?" Tails asked.

"Tails you can be on a team with those girls there." Julie-Su pointed. "I'll be on a team with Knuckles and this other girl." she shoved Tails away.

"Hey!" Knuckles and Tails both shouted at once. The two other girls, who were two of the girls that were picking on Tails, grabbed him and walked over to where the team was set-up. Knuckles ended up stuck with Julie-Su and the weird other girl that had asked him out randomly.

"Oh great..." Knuckles muttered. "I don't want to play this! Especially if Tails isn't on my team!"

"You'll live without your child for a little bit." Julie-Su said sarcastically.

"He's your son?!" The other echidna, who was a dark turquoise colour yelled.

"I was being sarcastic!" Julie-Su cried.

"Oh. By the way, my name is Mauri-Ce."

"Okay?" Knuckles mumbled. He started walking ahead of them.

"He's weird." Mauri-Ce remarked.

"I know. He's really...unsocial or something." Julie-Su agreed.

Knuckles walked over to the stick and stared at it. He kicked the metal rings over.

"This game looks boring." he complained. He looked up and saw Tails stuck with the two mean girls.

"I want to beat you up, you little freak, but I can't or else he'll kill us." one of them said.

"Can we start the game now?" Tails yelled. Julie-Su and Mauri-Ce walked over.

"Okay, let's start." Julie-Su announced. She bent over and picked up the metal rings. "This is how you play. You have to stand here, and try to get the rings as close to the stick as you can. The girls from the winning team get to kiss Knuckles, and kick Tails."

"What?!" Knuckles and Tails screamed.

"Okay!" Julie-Su started throwing her rings.

"I don't want to play this!" Knuckles yelled.

"If you leave, we'll beat up Tails." Julie-Su exclaimed.

"But you'll beat him up after..." Knuckles cried.

"I know." Julie-Su said blankly, and threw her other ring. Knuckles tried to go over to Tails.

"Knuckles, stay here!" Julie-Su screamed.

"No!" Knuckles yelled. One of the echidnas from the other team smacked Tails in the face. Knuckles tried to grab Tails, but they shoved him away.

"Knuckles, stop! Just let them beat me up after!" Tails cried.

"Listen to your friend and get back over here! It's your turn anyway!" Julie-Su screeched. She walked over to him and gave him two other rings.

"I don't want to play!" Knuckles growled.

"Do you want them to hurt Tails?" Julie-Su asked.

"Either way, I'm not going to win this, am I?" Knuckles sighed. He walked over to where he had to throw the rings. He threw them and did alright.

"My turn!" Mauri-Ce exclaimed, and grabbed her own couple of rings. She shoved Knuckles out of her way and tossed them. She managed to get one of them on the stick.

"Amazing, Mauri-Ce!" Julie-Su screeched. "Okay, now it's the other team's turn."

"You can go last, Dingo." retorted the older-looking of the two mean girls. She was a darker purple and had a million accessories in her quills. She picked up her team's set of rings, which were more of a blue colour rather than reddish.

"It's Tails!" Tails cried.

"Whateves..." the girl rolled her eyes and threw the rings.

"Whateves? Seriously?" Knuckles muttered.

"By the way Knux, those two are Sam-At and Thela-Ke. They're best friends." Julie-Su remarked.

"Okay..." Knuckles mumbled. Thela-Ke, the lighter tan-coloured and bit smaller echidna grabbed her own two rings. On her first attempt, she purposely messed-up and the metal ring went flying backwards and hit Tails in the head.

"Ow!" Tails yelled. He fell over and started crying a bit.

"Tails!" Knuckles shouted. He ran over to him and helped him back up.

"Cry baby!" Thela-Ke screeched. She ignored them and retried her throw, actually throwing it normally that time.

"Knuckles, get back over here!" Julie-Su demanded.

"Why?" Knuckles argued.

"Just go..." Tails murmured. Knuckles slowly walked back over.

"Okay, your turn, Dingo." Sam-At snapped. She dumped the two rings left on Tails.

"Tails!" Tails yelled. He walked over to where he had to throw his rings.

"STUPID!" Thela-Ke screeched just as Tails was about to throw the ring. He messed-up and accidentally threw it at Knuckles's head.

"OW!" Knuckles yelled, grabbing his head.

"KNUCKLES!" Tails screamed. "I'M SORRY! She screamed 'stupid' and I messed-up!" Tails ran over to Knuckles.

"Go away, you little brat!" Julie-Su yelled at Tails and smacked his snout. He fell over and started crying.

"Hey!" Knuckles cried, looking up. Julie-Su stood right in front of him, blocking Tails. "Move!"

"No! You can leave him alone for at least a minute!" Julie-Su argued.

"You just hit him! Don't you know he's only eight? Don't hit little kids!" Knuckles yelled.

"What if they're being a brat?" Julie-Su asked.

"He didn't do anything though. He didn't deserve that! Move!" Knuckles pushed Julie-Su out of his way and bent over Tails. "Tails?"

"This game is too dangerous..." Tails mumbled. "I don't want to play it..."

"Yeah..." Knuckles agreed. He helped Tails back up again. "I don't even know if they're still..."

"Okay, so who won anyway?" Julie-Su asked. "Well, I'm pretty sure we did. Okay Knuckles, Tails, get over here."

"No!" Knuckles and Tails yelled in unison. They were about to run off when they realised the rest of the girls were all crowded in that direction, plus a bunch of teenaged guys that they had not seen before.

"What..." Knuckles mumbled.

"Who are you?" asked one of the guys.

"I'm Knuckles..." Knuckles mumbled.

"Oh, okay..." said the guy sarcastically. "And what's with the baby?"

"I'm not a baby!" Tails screamed. "Or a dingo! I'm just an eight-year-old fox!"

"Nice, so your best friend is a little boy? Okay..."

"There's nothing wrong with that...just leave me alone..." Knuckles muttered.

Knuckles and Tails could hear the group of guys mumble names, stupid things like "loser" and "loner". Knuckles felt trapped in between the group and Julie-Su, Mauri-Ce, Sam-At and Thela-Ke.

"This is like school, but we're not at school." Tails whispered. "Like how kids are at schools."

"Um, okay..." Knuckles mumbled, looking down.

Julie-Su finally walked up to them. She put her arm around Knuckles randomly.

"Uuuh..." Knuckles mumbled.

"Yeah, he's my boyfriend!" Julie-Su screeched.

"No I'm not..." Knuckles grumbled. "Get your arm off me..."

"Why would you want to date someone like this idiot?" asked the guy.

"Because, he's my soulmate, obviously." Julie-Su replied, still not letting go of Knuckles.

"No...let go of me..." Knuckles muttered.

"Looks like it to me, definitely." the guy said sarcastically.

"No, he was just isolated for a long time..." Julie-Su turned Knuckles to face her. "Right?"

Knuckles began to shake. "No!" he screamed, and pushed Julie-Su away. He then tried running off, but the guys from the crowd grabbed him. They started kicking him and beating him.

"Only someone as stupid as you would be friends with that cry baby fox!" one of them yelled.

"Do you not like girls or something?" another asked. He punched Knuckles in the head.

"STOP!" Knuckles screamed. He turned on him and punched him in the face. The echidna fell over. Knuckles stared at him before realising that everyone there was looking at him. Knuckles looked around, then ran off.


	8. Chapter 8: Unwanted Memories

"Sonic?" asked a high-pitched, squeely voice.

"Oh god..." Sonic cried, laying on the ground with the pictures everywhere. "Amy Rose? Seriously? Where'd you even come from?"

"I was looking for you! Cream gave me a lift! Where are we? It feels creepy in here." Amy replied.

"Yeah..." Sonic mumbled. He slowly got up and started picking up some of the frames. "Where are you?"

"In the tunnel." Amy replied. Sonic followed her voice until he nearly ran right into the dresser and her face.

"Oh...okay go back and I'll follow you out." Sonic said. Once he knew Amy was not right there, he put the pictures into the tunnel and started climbing in.

In the other area where Sonic first found the tunnel, he fell out and dropped some of the pictures. He picked them back up and looked towards the exit.

"Come on let's get outta here!" he exclaimed. They both ran out of the ground.

Outside, Sonic looked at the photos. The ones he managed to obtain were all of creepy echidnas - one looked a lot like Knuckles, except female with more fur on her head and creepy. Another one looked a bit like him but was darker red with different markings and a random beard. And there was another photo of a creepy red echidna with weird clothing, and a creepy baby.

"Okay, seriously, Knuckles's family is like...what the heck." Sonic remarked. "I mean, he's really normal compared to these jokers."

"Yeah..." Amy agreed, not really paying attention.

"Whatever." Sonic muttered. He left the pictures on the ground. "Amy, want to do something for me?"

"Like what?" Amy asked.

"Want to pretend to be Knuckles?" Sonic asked.

"Okay!" Amy exclaimed. "Don't take my emeralds! Blah! I don't like ants!" she said, acting angry.

"No...I meant do you want to pretend to be the guardian and guard the Master Emerald? Like what I'm stuck doing it because Knuckles isn't here." Sonic explained.

"Oh! Knuckles isn't here?" Amy asked. "Well sure, but only if you promise a date."

"Never mind, I'de rather do it myself..." Sonic mumbled, and walked away.

"Knuckles!" Tails screeched. He ran through the crowd after Knuckles, but he could not find him. "Knuckles, where'd you go?" Tails found himself back at the front of the house. He must have ran off, Tails thought. I should go find him. He ran off before anyone could stop him.

Knuckles thought he was finally somewhat back to safety now that he was away from the party, Julie-Su, her friends and her family. Knuckles sat down on the dirt near a creepy house and rested his head in his hands. Just as he realised he had left Tails alone at the party, he could hear the door of the house behind him open. Knuckles quickly jumped up and spun around. He could not really see who was standing at the door as there was some weird kind of emerald-looking decoration stapled to the doorframe and blocking her face.

"Sorry...I was kinda hovering around your house..." Knuckles apologised. "I can leave if you want..."

"Oh, it's fine!" the echidna replied. "Would you like to come inside?"

"Uh...I think it's..." Knuckles then thought about Julie-Su and how they could notice his absence at the party, right after punching a guy... "Maybe..." Knuckles mumbled. But what about Tails? Knuckles thought. He probably got away because everyone got distracted... "Uh..."

"Well, do whatever." the echidna said and walked off further into the house leaving the door open.

Curious, Knuckles slowly walked over to the front door and peered inside. He quietly stepped inside, and the moment he was fully inside the house, he began to get a bad feeling. He was just about to run back outside when the door suddenly slammed behind himself. He quickly spun around and saw the echidna that was talking to him a minute ago. Knuckles nearly had a heart attack. It was Lara-Le, his mom, that was standing in front of him.

"Uuuhhh...uummm...uuuhhh..." Knuckles mumbled. "Why...I don't..." he nearly fell over. Knuckles had never, ever wanted to see his mom again. He thought that day - the most relieving day of his life that his mom had left him - would have been the last time he would have ever seen her. Knuckles hated his mom. He hated her so much that he only ever called her by her name. She never liked Knuckles at all and mistreated him a lot. She thought Knuckles was cursed or that he was something terrible.

"I see you haven't changed..." Lara-Le remarked.

"I...uh...can I...um..." Knuckles mumbled. "Yeah..." He wanted to lunge for the door, but he felt paralysed. "Uh...where are the others...?"

"They went out somewhere. So it is only us." Lara-Le replied.

"I don't want to be here..." Knuckles muttered. He had never felt so relieved in his life when suddenly there was a knock on the door. Lara-Le turned around and answered it.

"Oh, hi...have you seen..." Tails began, then noticed Knuckles standing behind Lara-Le, shaking. "Knuckles!" Tails exclaimed. He was about to run in when Lara-Le slammed the door on his face and locked it.

"Hey!" Tails screamed. He began banging on the door.

"Tails!" Knuckles yelled. "Let him in!"

"Who is he?!" Lara-Le asked. "Do you actually have a friend? Didn't think you would EVER make one. Well I'm not surprised you're friends with a baby."

"He is NOT a BABY!" Knuckles yelled. "And why does it matter to you, you annoying control-freak?!"

Tails flew up and looked through the window of the front door. All he saw was Knuckles and his mom yelling at each other. Lara-Le tried to hit Knuckles but he dodged it and ran off.

"What's going on?!" Tails screamed. He flew around the house and found a side door which had been left unlocked. He opened it and ran into the house. He nearly ran straight into Knuckles who was running towards him.

"TAILS!" Knuckles yelled. "We have to get out of here!"

"Um, who is that and what is going on?" Tails wondered.

"That's..." Knuckles began, "that's my mom..."

"Oh..." Tails mumbled.

"Hey, how'd your baby friend get in here, Knuckles?!" Lara-Le screamed suddenly.

"GO AWAY!" Knuckles screamed back.

"Of course only a dumb baby like that fox would want to be friends with a fault like you..."

Knuckles turned away and looked down. Tails stepped in front of him.

"Wow...I've never had a mother myself, but I know that you are one of the WORST mothers ANYONE could POSSIBLY HAVE!" Tails screamed. "What do you mean a 'fault'? Knuckles isn't a 'fault'. No one can be perfect! And clearly you aren't, either! Even if Knuckles has down-points of his own, he is still a nice person once you know him! I can't believe you are so...I don't know, judgmental!"

"I won't let a young child lecture me about my own son!" Lara-Le screamed and smacked Tails in the head. "Mind your own business!"

"Ow!" Tails whimpered and fell over. Knuckles turned around.

"HEY!" he yelled. "Don't EVER hurt Tails! He didn't do anything to hurt you..." he leaned over Tails. "Are you okay?"

"I think..." Tails replied. "Now I know what you mean..."

"Yeah..." Knuckles mumbled. Suddenly the front door opened and a little screeching kid came running down the hallway right into Knuckles and Tails.

"What the..." Knuckles muttered. He saw his messed-up half brother staring at him with a really creepy expression on his face. "Okay..."

"Hey, how did Knuckles and Tails get in here?" Wyn asked suddenly. "I thought it was for our own good that you didn't see them or something."

"Yeah..." Lara-Le mumbled. "But Knuckles was stupid enough to walk right in here anyway."

"We should escape while-" Tails began.

"NA-NA!" Kneecaps screamed randomly and started banging Knuckles with his annoying rattle.

"Ow! Go away!" Knuckles growled. "Come on!" he said to Tails. They both darted off. Tails lead Knuckles over to the side door he had entered through and they ran off back down the road.

"Your mom is horrible!" Tails remarked.

"Yeah, imagine growing up with her, trapped on an island. And you didn't even see the worst..." Knuckles replied. "I'd rather not think about it..."

"Okay." Tails said. "Hey, I forgot all about that anni-"

"Hey!" screamed someone from behind them. They turned around. "You are the one that punched my son, you..." yelled an echidna which must have been the father of the kid that was beating up Knuckles. He walked up to him and punched him right in the face.

"KNUCKLES!" Tails screamed. Knuckles fell over.

"That'll teach you to never mess with my son!" the guy screamed, and walked away.


	9. Chapter 9: Bonding Time (Not Really)

Knuckles woke up on a couch somewhere. His face felt like it was stuck in an ice block, when he realised he had ice on his face.

"What the heck..." he mumbled. He tried to take the ice off when he realised his face hurt. He moved it enough so that he could see, and realised that he was back in Julie-Su's house. "Hello?" he yelled.

"Knuckles!" Julie-Su screamed.

"Ugh..." Knuckles muttered and tried to pretend to be asleep again. However Julie-Su started pushing him into the couch.

"OW!" Knuckles yelled, jumping up and flinging the ice bag into Julie-Su's face.

"Oh I'm sorry..." Julie-Su said.

"What's going on?" Knuckles yelled.

"You got punch in the face by some kid's dad because you punched the kid, and well you basically ruined the anniversary party." Julie-Su explained.

"Why'd you leave?" Knuckles asked.

"Because they needed someone to stay with you." Julie-Su replied. "Why did you punch that kid anyway?"

"He was beating on me and saying stuff...I guess I shouldn't have punched him but it was out of self-defence. Also everyone thought I was some wimp..." Knuckles explained. "Where's Tails?"

"He's still at the anniversary party."

"But I thought I 'ruined' it." Knuckles remarked.

"Yeah...but he's staying with my parents so we could have some alone time."

"Oh, wonderful..." Knuckles muttered. He fell back down, but ended up hurting himself since he was covered in bruises. "Ow..."

"You know Knuckles, we're gonna have a kid. Her name will be Lara-Su, that is, if she's a girl. What do you think would be a good name for a boy?" Julie-Su asked.

"Shut-up!" Knuckles muttered.

"Would you like some juice? I made it myself." Julie-Su asked.

"No, thanks..." Knuckles mumbled. "I only want to see Tails..."

"Why are you so obsessed with Tails?" Julie-Su cried.

"He's my only friend...down here I feel alone without him..." Knuckles sighed.

"Oh, how sweet." Julie-Su mumbled. "But once you fall in love you'll forget about him."

Knuckles grumbled something and turned his face into the side of the couch.

"Okay, well I'm going to change." Julie-Su announced, and left the room. After a minute Knuckles began to realise how hungry he was. He slowly got up, his body aching. His face felt like it was bashed against a rock. He stepped into the kitchen and opened the fridge. He grabbed some carrot sticks and started eating them as he stared at the juice pitcher. It looked a bit like watered-down blood.

"Elch..." Knuckles mumbled and closed the fridge. He walked around the kitchen slowly and looked around, bored. If my body wasn't aching so much, I could just escape now! he thought. This sucks...

"There! I'm finally out of that dress!" Julie-Su screamed in Knuckles's head suddenly.

"OH MY GOD!" Knuckles yelled and turned around quickly.

"Sorry if I scared you, silly!" Julie-Su giggled creepily. "Too bad you must be sore now..."

"Yeah..." Knuckles mumbled and walked back into the living room. He threw the ends of the carrots on the floor.

"Um..." Julie-Su mumbled.

"What?" Knuckles cried.

"Why did you throw those on the floor?" Julie-Su asked.

"I don't know, where am I supposed to put them?" Knuckles wondered.

"Here." Julie-Su picked them up and walked back into the kitchen. Knuckles sat down on the couch and stared at what looked like a TV, which was off. Julie-Su walked back in and gave him a glass of that juice.

"I don't want your watered-down Flicky blood ant juice!" Knuckles yelled and threw the glass across the room.

"Hey! Why don't you have any manners?" Julie-Su screeched, and dumped her glass on Knuckles's face before kicking his leg.

"Ow!" Knuckles yelled. "Why'd you dump this crap on me?!"

"Because you don't throw drinks across the house!" Julie-Su shouted.

"Now I'm covered in watered-down Flicky blood ant whatever!" Knuckles cried.

"Too bad!" Julie-Su grabbed a tattered blanket off the other couch and threw it on Knuckles. "Use that!"

"This won't help much..." Knuckles muttered. He tried drying his face off anyway. Maybe if I act as annoying as possible, she won't like me anymore...Knuckles thought. I guess I could try...

He threw the blanket back at her face.

"I don't want it!" Julie-Su yelled and threw it back at him. But Knuckles threw it back at Julie-Su, and it resulted in an infinite loop of throwing the blanket back and fourth until finally Julie-Su threw it at the wall. "There!" she exclaimed, annoyed. "Do you want to play a board game?"

"No!" Knuckles shouted.

"Well we're going to anyway. Let me go back to my room and get one." she said and ran off. Knuckles got up and started throwing unbreakable things around the room such as pillows and blankets. Then he went back to the fridge. He dumped the juice everywhere and grabbed some more carrots, then left the fridge open. He went out into the backyard and tried to get his shoes as dirty as he could, then walked back into the house and spread dirt everywhere.

"I don't want to be here!" he yelled and knocked over one of the chairs. Julie-Su ran back into the kitchen and saw Knuckles standing there, eating the carrots with his mouth open.

"What happened?" Julie-Su screeched, nearly dropping the game box.

"Nothing." Knuckles replied.

"Close your mouth..." Julie-Su mumbled and walked over to the fridge. She shut it, leaving the juice spilt everywhere.

"Wow, you really don't have manners or anything, do you? Well don't worry sweetie, I can teach you!" Julie-Su exclaimed before walking back into the living room.

"SERIOUSLY?!" Knuckles yelled silently to himself. He kicked the floor.

"Are you coming in here or what?" Julie-Su called.

"Ugh!" Knuckles sighed. He walked into the living room. Julie-Su was setting up a board game on the coffee table.

"This game is amazing. What colour do you want to be?" Julie-Su asked.

"Red?" Knuckles replied.

"But I'm ALWAYS red." Julie-Su argued.

"Whatever! I'll be green then! Seriously!" Knuckles yelled.

"Calm down!" Julie-Su cried. "Now I'll go first and roll the dice." Julie-Su rolled the dice. She got six. She landed on a card space and read the card. "You won the lottery. Get a thousand dollars."

"No you didn't." Knuckles grabbed the card. "Oh..."

Julie-Su grabbed a bunch of money, but more than a thousand.

"You cheated." Knuckles pointed.

"No I didn't. Roll the dice." Julie-Su said.

"No. You cheated." Knuckles repeated.

"Roll the dice for god's sakes!" Julie-Su yelled.

"Put some of the money back then!" Knuckles argued.

"Roll the dice or I'll stick them in your eyes!"

"...Okay..." Knuckles mumbled. He rolled the dice and got a one. It was a card space as well, except for an event card rather than a money card. He picked it up and read it.

"You got marri-okay I'm done with this game." Knuckles yelled and threw the card down.

"What?" Julie-Su cried. She picked up the card. "You got married and had children. Take a family card." she read. "So why are you done now?"

"Because." Knuckles muttered. He got up and left the room.

"Okay..."

Knuckles walked over to the front door and opened it. Right as he opened the door, a mob of teenaged kids were standing in the yard. They started yelling.

"Oh my God!" Knuckles yelled and slammed the door. "I'm trapped!"

"Want to role-play?" Julie-Su asked randomly.

"What? I don't even know what that is! No!" Knuckles yelled.

"It's like when you make up a story on the spot...but you act it."

"Well, no." Knuckles said and walked away.

"Well do you want to tell stories then?" Julie-Su asked.

"I don't want to do anything with you..." Knuckles replied.

"Want to..."

"NO!"

"You didn't even let me finish!"

"I know."

"You can't do that! Want to dance?"

"What the! No!"

"Want to draw?"

"No."

"Want to look at my drawings?"

"I've already seen enough of those..."

"Want to eat grapes?"

"If there were any..."

"Want to go treasure hunting?"

"There are no gems around here, I don't think! And no, not with you!"

"Want to cuddle?"

"...WHAT?! NO!" Knuckles screamed.

"Want to go kill yourself?"

Knuckles felt slightly offended. "No, not necessarily, and what kind of question is that anyway?"

"WELL, WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO WITH ME?!" Julie-Su screamed. "I know you are my soulmate, but why are you so...impossible?"

"Impossible? I am not 'impossible', that makes no freaking sense. And we are NOT soulmates, can't you tell? We argue about EVERYTHING!" Knuckles cried.

"Soultouch never fails. Only if it gets broken. But it can't break if it hasn't even really happened yet." Julie-Su explained.

"I already said, I don't have that 'soultouch' thing! Seriously, why couldn't I have stayed the only-"

"We're back!" exclaimed Momma-Su. Knuckles and Julie-Su both looked over at the door, and saw Momma-Su, Googoo, Grandpop and Gramgram walking through the front door.

"Where's Tails?" Knuckles asked.

"He's there, calm down!" Momma-Su replied. A moment later Tails slowly stepped inside. He looked bruised and covered in dirt. He looked up and saw Knuckles.

"Knuckles!" Tails exclaimed, and ran up to him.

"Tails! Finally! What happened? Did they hurt you?" Knuckles asked.

"The teenagers were mean to me..." Tails sighed. "But I'm alright now..."

"Are they still all mobbing around the house?" Knuckles wondered.

"They were, but Googoo shouted at them to leave." Tails replied. "That anniversary was so boring though...and they tried to make me eat ants."

"Gross..." Knuckles mumbled.

"What happened here?" Momma-Su screeched.

"Knuckles needs to be taught some manners!" Julie-Su yelled.

"Knuckles..." Momma-Su muttered.

"I was hoping Julie-Su would dislike me if I messed-up the house and acted annoying..." Knuckles whispered to Tails.

"Oh..." Tails nodded.

"Knuckles, did you track dirt every..." Momma-Su began as she opened the fridge. "Knuckles!" she yelled. "You better clean up this mess!"

"That juice is blood!" Knuckles argued.

"Don't be silly! Clean up your mess, you're in someone else's house." Julie-Su giggled.

"You know what? No!" Knuckles yelled.

Googoo walked over to him. "Don't talk to people like that." he demanded.

"I can talk to them however I want, ESPECIALLY when they're trying to ruin my life!" Knuckles declared.

"How are we ruining your life?" Googoo asked.

"Because you basically brought me down here so you could pair me with your daughter. And now we're stuck." Knuckles replied.

"But you and Julie-Su make the PERFECT couple!" Googoo exclaimed. He grabbed Julie-Su from behind himself and squeezed her and Knuckles together side-by-side. "You do realise you two are destined soulmates, right?"

"Uuuuhhhh..." Knuckles mumbled.

"As we said, this is the main reason why we wanted you down here." Googoo remarked. "But no marrying, for the sake of soultouch. We don't want to have to deal with divorcing and all that. But you will have a kid."

Knuckles had not ever felt like dying more in his entire life.


	10. Chapter 10: Tails Breaks Down

"For God sakes, why won't you ever just leave Knuckles alone? He doesn't like Julie-Su! What part of that don't you get?! She's creepy, annoying, clingy, scary, pink, half robot, stupid...let him have some God darn freaking free will, you idiots! I'm really starting to feel bad for him! Thank God I'm only eight years old!" Tails screamed in both Googoo and Julie-Su's faces.

Knuckles was surprised. Never had he actually been backed-up by someone in his life.

Googoo sighed. "There's a lot you need to learn, Tails. Come with me."

"Huh?" Tails murmured as Googoo motioned him up the stairs.

"You're not going to..." Knuckles began. "He's eight!"

"Don't you worry about Tails, Knuckles." Googoo said as they disappeared up the stairs.

Upstairs, Googoo lead Tails into his bedroom. There he sat Tails on the bed.

"You do know the main reason why we wanted Knuckles to come down here eventually anyway, eh?" Googoo asked. "It is unfortunate that we now have this whole cave-in thing happening…we wanted Knuckles to meet his soulmate eventually, and now he can at least meet her before we all die."

Tails stared at Googoo blankly. "You mean...we are all going to die now and you just wanted your daughter to meet my friend?!" Tails cried. "I...I don't even..."

"You know young Tails, that each echidna has the soultouch ability. It helps us find our perfect soulmate. Julie-Su practically soultouched with Knuckles only from seeing pictures of him! I'm not sure what's taking him so long..." Googoo explained.

"How did she get pictures of him?" Tails wondered.

"Uh, his mom gave them to her or something..." Googoo replied.

"Is this what Knuckles was worried about you telling me?" Tails asked.

"I don't think so...okay let's go back down stairs now!" Googoo exclaimed, and rushed Tails back down the stairs. When they entered the foyer, they saw Julie-Su tackling Knuckles.

"What the heck is going on?!" Tails screeched.

"Go away!" Knuckles growled. He tried to push Julie-Su away from him but she kept grabbing him randomly. "I already ache enough! Seriously!"

"Leave Knuckles alone!" Tails yelled.

"Now now, Tails, what did we just talk about?" Googoo said.

"Yeah, what did you just talk about?" Knuckles asked.

"Soultouch and your reason for being here...and how we're basically on our death beds." Tails sighed. "Now you get to die here with Julie-Su."

"WHAT?!" Knuckles yelled. Julie-Su ran into him and he fell on the floor. "OW! GET OFF OF ME!" Knuckles screamed, and shoved her into the wall.

"You kids play nice, now. We planned something nice for Knuckles and Julie-Su tonight." Googoo declared as he walked into the kitchen.

"T...tonight...?" Knuckles mumbled.

"Like for dinner." Googoo replied.

"OH! Oh! ...Oh." Knuckles shouted.

"Oh?" Julie-Su screamed randomly in his face.

"I just...never mind..." Knuckles muttered.

"You get to sleep on my twin-sized bed tonight so we will have to sleep very close together!" Julie-Su screamed across the house.

"WHAT?!" Knuckles screamed back.

"Don't tell me you'd rather sleep on the floor." Julie-Su mumbled.

"Actually, I WOULD!" Knuckles exclaimed.

"Am I still sleeping in the basement?" Tails asked.

"Yeah." Julie-Su replied.

"Can't I sleep in the basement, too?" Knuckles asked.

"No, obviously! Plus the basement is creepy. There are ghosts down there!" Julie-Su remarked.

"Ghosts...?" Knuckles and Tails said in unison.

"Just kidding!" Julie-Su exclaimed. "I guess I have to get changed again. I'll be back in a moment."

"You know Knuckles, they basically wanted you down here so Julie-Su could meet you before we all died..." Tails whispered.

"What?!" Knuckles yelled. "So basically we're going to die to fulfill some fangirl's happiness? Of all the.."

"Knuckles, you need to get ready too. I got this suit out for you." Momma-Su exclaimed. She walked over to Knuckles holding some weird tuxedo thing.

"What? I don't want to wear that!" Knuckles cried.

"You have to. Put it on." Momma-Su demanded, and put the jacket on Knuckles's head. "Also, have a shower. You smell."

"Thanks..." Knuckles grumbled and took the jacket off his face. "How is having a shower in mud going to help anything?"

"Oh, it's not that bad. There's shampoo there. And the water gets less muddy if you let it run. But it's cold though." Momma-Su replied.

"Oh, that's great..." Knuckles muttered and walked into the bathroom, leaving Tails behind.

"What am I going to do?" he asked.

"Oh, you're not going with them to dinner. Knuckles needs to be away from you as much as possible and be near Julie-Su as much as possible. You can stay here and eat ant stroganoff with us old people." Momma-Su replied.

"Ant stroganoff? But I don't eat ants!" Tails cried.

"Well, you should try them. They're pretty good." Momma-Su remarked.

Well, Knuckles hates ants and he's an anteater! I'm not even an anteater... Tails thought. He walked into the kitchen and sat at the table. He stared at the pot of mashed grossness. He did not even know what it was, and there were termites in it. It looked like puke to him.

"Ew..." Tails mumbled and got back up off the chair. "I'm bored."

"Then you shouldn't have came along, little boy. Nowhere in the note did it say we needed the assistance of a little fox...or anyone in general besides Knuckles." Grandpop remarked.

"But I'm Knuckles's friend! I was there when he got the letter. You know he seemed to debate on coming. If it wasn't for me, he might not have even came here. Now I've probably just lead Knuckles to his doom!" Tails screamed. He ran out the kitchen and upstairs, crying. He ran into Julie-Su's room without thinking. He fell down on the floor at the sight of all the Knuckles pictures. "KNUCKLES! I'm sorry! You should have trusted yourself..."

Tails cried into the floor for a good long five minutes. After he looked up and saw that scary handmade Knuckles plush with that had his mouth on one side of his face and was looking in different directions that Knuckles threw at the wall earlier. Tails grabbed it and stared at it.

"This thing is scarier than the Tails Doll..." he mumbled. He tossed it at Julie-Su's bed. She had a crocheted blanket with a really bad picture of Knuckles crocheted into the pattern. Tails picked it up and wrapped it around his body. He sat there and stared at the floor for a while, silent.

Eventually, Julie-Su walked into the bedroom, wearing an even more obnoxious dress than before. Since she obviously could not wear earrings, she put a bunch of obnoxious accessories in her spines. She had so much make-up on she looked like a clown. And she was wearing high heels which she could barely walk in.

"What are you doing in here? Get off my bed!" she screeched.

"Julie-Su?" Tails exclaimed, not even realising it was her at first. "You look like a clown, no offense."

"No I don't!" Julie-Su argued.

"Ask Knuckles then..." Tails mumbled. He got up, still with the blanket and walked down the stairs. Knuckles was just coming out of the bathroom down there. He was wearing the weird tuxedo thing.

"I don't like this..." he muttered.

"What the heck?" Tails exclaimed.

"Tails, what's with the blanket of me?" Knuckles asked.

"Oh, um..." Tails mumbled. "I don't know, it's Julie-Su's..."

Suddenly Momma-Su walked right in front of Knuckles and started spraying him to death with something.

"Ow my eyes! What the heck!" Knuckles yelled. "My nose hurts now too!"

"There. You look delectable." Momma-Su remarked.

"What the..." Knuckles muttered. Julie-Su came running down the stairs. She nearly died at the site of Knuckles.

"WHAT THE HECK!" Knuckles screamed.

"Oh Knuckles! You look MARVELOUS!" Julie-Su yelled.

"Really? Because I sure don't feel that way." Knuckles replied. "And also, you look like a clown."

"You think so?" Julie-Su sighed. "Well what should I do?"

"Leave me alone." Knuckles said.

"No, really. So I don't look like a clown." Julie-Su cried.

"Go wash off your face..." Knuckles suggested.

"And go with no make-up?"

"I guess..."

"Oh, how sweet of you! You think I look better just how I am!" Julie-Su exclaimed, and ran back up the stairs.

"No I didn't mean...ugh." Knuckles sighed. "Tails, what are you doing? Do you have to stay?"

"Yeah...and eat ant stroganoff..." Tails mumbled.

"That sounds disgusting." Knuckles remarked. "Let's go now!" He darted two steps over to the door and opened it.

"UH-UH!" yelled Googoo from behind Knuckles. He grabbed the back of his jacket. "You're not going ANYWHERE."

"Oh..." Knuckles sighed.

"Ready to go, Julie?" Googoo hollered. Julie-Su sprung out the door past them. She grabbed Knuckles from Googoo.

"Now how do I look?" she exclaimed.

"Not like a clown..." Knuckles replied.

"Oh!" Julie-Su exclaimed randomly, and kissed Knuckles's snout.

"Ew!" Knuckles yelled, shoving her away.

"Have fun, kiddies! Don't be back too late!" Googoo yelled out the door.

"B-" Tails began, but the door slammed.

"Tails..." Knuckles sighed.

"Forget about him, Knux! The only one you should be thinking about is me!" Julie-Su screeched.

"I think not!" Knuckles yelled, and sprinted off.

"KNUCKLES!" Julie-Su screamed. "GET BACK HERE!" However, Knuckles was already too far away to hear her anymore.


	11. Chapter 11: Forced Date

As Knuckles ran through the city, he began to notice a lot of angry echidnas. Knuckles got distracted by them and ran straight into the wall of a building, and fell down.

"Ow..." Knuckles mumbled.

"What's with the suit, Knucklehead?" asked a familiar voice. Knuckles slowly looked up and saw the same guy from the anniversary earlier that was making fun of Knuckles for being friends with Tails.

"Oh, not you again..." Knuckles growled. He got up. "You saw what happened to that other guy, right?"

"Yeah...now answer my question!"

"I've been forced on a date thing..." Knuckles muttered.

"Oh, I see. You've been 'forced' to go on a 'date' with Julie-Su. Since you're 'different' you tried to 'escape' and you ran into a wall."

"I am not 'different' like you might think..." Knuckles grumbled.

"Yeah, whatever..." the guy said. Knuckles began walking away but he noticed still a lot of angry looking echidnas.

"Hey! It's that guy that punched that kid earlier!"

"Someone get him!"

"What's with the tuxedo?"

Suddenly something hit Knuckles in the head. He saw a rock fall on the ground.

"Ow!" Knuckles yelled. "Jerk!"

Another guy walked up behind Knuckles and kicked the back of his knee. Knuckles fell over.

"I'm sorry, okay? Now please leave me alone!" Knuckles cried.

"Knuckles!" screeched Julie-Su's voice. "Stop beating him up!" She ran over to him and helped him back up. "Good news is, we're right by the restaurant!" she exclaimed, and pointed towards a creepy restaurant. It had a picture of a regular aardvark with glowing hearts around it, and it said in big letters "The Anteater Nose Effect Heart".

"What the heck..." Knuckles mumbled.

"Don't run off anymore okay Knux? You'll get mobbed because of the incident earlier. You won't if you stay with me." Julie-Su said as she dragged Knuckles over to the restaurant.

"Oh, so you're saying I have to depend on a girl to protect me from everyone? Really? I can deal with them myself, I'm not that helpless!" Knuckles growled.

"What do you mean, 'depend on a girl'? Are you saying girls are weak?"

"No, I didn't mean it like that. In general I shouldn't have to depend on anyone!"

"Yes, but if you go out by yourself, you'll just punch more people and get into worse trouble! You have a bad temper and that plus your amazing strength plus your spiked hands plus your name plus your everything else equals terrible combination!" Julie-Su explained. "When it comes to other people against you, that is..."

"Whatever..." Knuckles muttered. Julie-Su dragged him through the door of the restaurant. Inside it was playing creepy love songs.

"Hello, and welcome to the Anteater Nose Effect Heart Restaurant! I'll be your waitress! Follow me!" the girl behind the counter exclaimed. She lead them over to a booth in the corner. "Hope you two have a romantic evening!"

"Yeah..." Knuckles grumbled.

"OMG, are you Knuckles or whatever?"

"YIA!" Knuckles yelled.

"What?"

"Seriously? OMG? I said YIA because that stands for yes I am. Now please don't bother me it's annoying." Knuckles cried.

"Knuckles, stop being like that." Julie-Su demanded.

"WWYLTD?" asked the waitress.

"What?!" Knuckles yelled. "Seriously, just TALK!"

"IWCBWYABA. OIWGADW." said the waitress and walked off.

"Okay..." Knuckles mumbled.

"Do you have any romantic feelings for me yet?" Julie-Su asked.

"None. Negative amounts." Knuckles replied.

"Seriously? Oh, is it because of that Rogue girl? You like her better, don't you." Julie-Su muttered.

"You mean Rouge? No, I hate her!" Knuckles replied.

"Oh please. Don't act like I haven't heard of Kick the Rock." Julie-Su rolled her eyes.

"Kick the..." Knuckles began. "Oh, you mean that terrible rap theme? I didn't actually sing that! I hate rap anyway! And those freaking lyrics? NO!"

"Okay, whatever..."

"So what would you like to drink?" asked a waiter suddenly.

"What happened to that other annoying waitress?" Knuckles asked.

"She got frustrated and left. She didn't tell me why. So?" the waiter replied.

"Uh..." Knuckles mumbled. "Do you have anything normal like ice tea?"

"We have ant juice."

"Ew! Do you have something that isn't ants?"

"Water..." the waiter replied.

"Well then I'll just get that please."

"Can I get that ant juice?" Julie-Su exclaimed.

"Are you two getting married or something?" the waiter asked before leaving.

"No!" Knuckles and Julie-Su said in unison. Knuckles looked at her, confused for a moment.

"We're domestic mates." Julie-Su added.

"Wha-" Knuckles began.

"Oh, okaaay..." the waiter nodded and walked off.

"What the heck are 'domestic mates'?" Knuckles asked.

"You know, we're together but not getting married, but having a child." Julie-Su explained.

"Uh-huh!" Knuckles replied sarcastically. As Julie-Su started spacing-out and staring at the table, Knuckles started listening to the music playing. He began to regret doing so because the music playing had very creepy lyrics and it sounded like dubstep. Knuckles started feeling really weak.

"Someone has to change this music..." he mumbled.

"What's wrong with it? I like this song. I have a lot of music like this back home." Julie-Su asked.

"The lyrics..." Knuckles mumbled. "They're almost worse than Kick the Rock..."

Suddenly the waiter placed two large glasses on the table.

"Thanks...wait, why didn't we ever get a menu?" Knuckles asked.

"We knew you were coming, Knuckles. Your father-in-law told us to give you sweet couple a surprise dinner." the waiter explained.

"For your information, he's not my 'father-in-law', and we are NOT A SWEET COUPLE!" Knuckles cried. "And can someone please change the music?"

"Then what are you, a charming couple?" asked the waiter.

"We're not even a couple! I've just been forced into all this crap!" Knuckles yelled. "I'm sorry, you don't really have to do with it..."

"Don't mind him. He hasn't awakened his soul-"

"I DON'T HAVE, A...ffffreaking SOULTOUCH ABILITY!" Knuckles screamed.

"Hey! If you guys are going to fight, then get out of the restaurant!" the waiter exclaimed.

"GLADLY!" Knuckles yelled. He jumped off the booth seat and ran out the door.

"I'm sorry! Knuckles really needs to learn some manners! I mean he did live alone on an island his whole life." Julie-Su apologised.

"Uh, miss, are you sure he's the right guy for you? He doesn't seem interested in romance at all!" the waiter remarked.

"But Knuckles...I soultouched with his pictures!" Julie-Su cried.

"Well there's obviously not something right...just leave him alone for a little bit. Do you still want your dinner? You could take it to go and bring it back to him." the waiter said.

"Sure, I guess..." Julie-Su mumbled.

Meanwhile, Knuckles was running through the city until he found the Mighty Barking Bean again. He ran inside.

"Knuckles? What's with the tuxedo?" Mighty asked.

"Grrr!" Knuckles growled, and ripped the tuxedo off himself. He threw it on the floor and sat down at a table farthest away from a window. He buried his face into his arms.

"Are you okay?" Mighty asked. He walked over to Knuckles cautiously.

"Go away." Knuckles mumbled into the table.

"Okay..." Mighty walked away. Knuckles sat there for a while, never looking up. He did not care if anyone was staring at him or not. He did not want to be there, in Echidnaopolis in the first place. I've only had one good time in my life, haven't I? Knuckles thought. Only one time where I was free from my parents, jerks, everything I hate...and it was fine until Rouge came along...and everything has gone downhill since that, that...

"Knuckles..." said someone's voice. Knuckles did not look up. "Knuckles look up."

"No." Knuckles replied.

"Look up!"

Knuckles barely lifted his head and looked up a tiny bit. All he could see was a blurry dark red figure.

"Guh!" he muttered and shoved his face into his arms again. "Go away, Googoo, I don't wanna talk to you."

"What happened back at the restaurant?" Googoo asked.

"Clean your ears." Knuckles replied.

"What?"

Knuckles sighed and lifted his head. "I said CLEAN YOUR EARS! I don't want to talk to you right now!"

"But isn't that a little hard?" Googoo asked.

"Even, if you can't freaking see them, I sure you have SOMETHING in your ears ANYWAY!" Knuckles yelled.

"Well, there are a lot of things you don't want to do. But it is impossible to avoid them all. You can't constantly try to avoid love." Googoo explained.

" **I am not avoiding 'love' as you say...there are still things I love...** " Knuckles mumbled. " **But just not in the way everyone thinks of 'love'...** "

Author's note: YUM

"Like what?" Googoo asked.

"Uh..." Knuckles mumbled. "Well I have realised over the last little while I have grown more attached to..."

"Oh, you found him, Googoo!" screeched Momma-Su. "Where's Julie-Su? Still at the restaurant?"

"Probably. Now Knuckles you still haven't told me what happened." Googoo remarked.

"I got mad and left. There, happy?" Knuckles replied. He got up. "Where's Tails? We're going now. We're going to go find a way out. I don't care if you decide to follow us or not, but we're going." Knuckles declared.

"No you aren't. You must spend the night with Julie-Su. If you still don't fall in love, then you may go." Googoo said.

"Isn't it clear I'm not falling in love with her?!" Knuckles shouted.

"But you still need to spend the night..." Googoo remarked.

"Uuuuhhhhh..." Knuckles mumbled. "What?"

"Come on, let's go now." Googoo directed Knuckles outside with Momma-Su.

Mighty just stared at them as they left. "What the heck..." he mumbled to himself.

Back at Julie-Su's house, Gramgram and Grandpop were setting up Tails's sleeping area in the basement. It was extremely cold down there and dark and there were a lot of spiders and other creepy things.

"I don't like it down here..." Tails murmured, wrapping his tails around his face.

"It will be alright. We'll all be two floors above you." Grandpop reinsured.

"Two floors?!" Tails cried. "Can't Knuckles at least stay down here with me?"

"No, he has to stay with Julie-Su, darling." Gramgram replied.

"Can't he at least stay with me for a little bit?" Tails pleaded.

"I don't know." Gramgram looked at Grampop.

"Gotta ask the parents." Grandpop replied. Tails sighed as we watched Gramgram place the sleeping bag onto the cold dirt floor by a pillow. "There you go. I'm sure Julie won't mind you using her Knuckles blanket."

"Oh yeah, I still have that on me..." Tails remarked.

"You should go to bed now. Knuckles will be busy when he gets back." Grandpop said.

"How?" Tails asked. The grandparents did not reply and walked back upstairs. Tails felt a sickening feeling creep over him.

Knuckles bursted through the front door. "Where's Tails?!" he yelled.

"Sleeping." Gramgram replied.

"Downstairs?" Knuckles asked.

"Yeah. I'm sure it would be alright for you to see him before heading to the bedroom." Grandpop said creepily.

"The heck?" Knuckles muttered. He felt a bit sick. "Well okay..." he hurried down the stairs before the others could come inside behind him.

"Knuckles...?" Tails murmured.

"Tails!" Knuckles exclaimed. "It's really cold and creepy down here. Are you alright?" he ran over to where Tails was laying down and bent over him.

"You smell like perfume or something..." Tails complained.

"I think it was whatever Momma sprayed me with before..." Knuckles replied.

"Can you stay here for a bit?" Tails asked.

"As long as I possibly can." Knuckles replied. "I don't want to sleep up there. I can't believe they're making you sleep here. I tried to get us out of here, but that jerk Googoo said we HAD to stay the night. I know I couldn't just leave you here..."

"Yeah..." Tails sighed. "I'm sorry Knuckles, this is my fault."

"It's not your fault, Tails."

"Yes it is. I wanted to come here more than you did. I would have been better off going down the elevator by myself like I was going to do." Tails explained.

"No. I wouldn't want to leave you to go down by yourself and get killed." Knuckles declared.

"I guess. You're a good friend, Knuckles..."

"Uh, thanks..." Knuckles replied awkwardly. No one had really called him a "good friend" before. And after I screamed at all those people and punched a kid in the head? He calls me a "good friend"? Well, okay... Knuckles thought.

"Knuckles, you might have a really bad temper and everything, but at least you're kind to the people you care about..." Tails said into his tails and blankets.

"Huh?" Knuckles asked. However, Tails's eyes were starting to close.

"KNUCKLES!" screamed Momma-Su from upstairs.

"Goodnight, Tails..." Knuckles sighed. He fixed his blanket so it covered him more. "Hope it's not too cold for you down here..."

"KNUCKLES! GET UP HERE!" Momma-Su screamed.

"I'm COMING!" Knuckles yelled under his breath, and ran up the stairs.


	12. Chapter 12: Knuckles Goes Insane

"Go upstairs and get ready for bed. Julie-Su's already in her room. You don't get dinner tonight because of what you did." Momma-Su snapped, and gave Knuckles some sort of toothbrush with toothpaste on it. "And may I recommend you brush your teeth?"

"Why won't you 'punish' me by putting me in the basement?" Knuckles grumbled.

"Tails is down there though." Momma-Su remarked.

"You could put him in the living room..." Knuckles suggested.

"Get upstairs!" Momma-Su yelled. "And don't be coming back down 'til the morning!" Knuckles ran up the stairs. He stared down the hall where Julie-Su's bedroom door was. He looked a bit to his left and saw the bathroom door open. He darted inside and locked the door behind him. He turned on the light and looked in the mirror at himself.

"Ugh..." he mumbled. Knuckles looked at the toothbrush. He started brushing his teeth. As he did this, he came up with an idea. I could just sit in the bathroom all night and say I'm sick, he thought. Then I don't have to go in her room...

Knuckles rinsed the toothbrush off. Realising how thirsty he was, he ran the water until it looked less muddy and tried drinking it. It tasted disgusting though.

Someone banged on the door. "Knuckles, what are you doing in there?" called Julie-Su. Knuckles did not answer. "Knuckles? Are you okay?"

"No...I'm sick..." Knuckles lied.

"Oh...maybe you got food poisoning. I wish you felt better, sweetie..." Julie-Su said.

Yeah, not because you care about me, creep... Knuckles thought. He could hear her run down the stairs. After a moment she ran back up.

"What's the problem, Knuckles?" asked Googoo.

"...I'm sick..." Knuckles replied.

"How convenient..." Knuckles could hear Googoo mutter under his breath. "No you aren't. If you are, open the door and prove it."

"I can't get up..." Knuckles lied, standing in the middle of the bathroom.

"Then I'll kick the door down!" Googoo yelled. "Are you REALLY sick, or just nervous? Because there's nothing to be nervous of, it's-"

To prevent Googoo from going any further, Knuckles jerked the door open. "I'M FINE GOODNIGHT!" he yelled and ran down the hall into the bedroom.

"Well that was easy." Googoo remarked. "Goodnight, Julie-Su." he walked downstairs. Julie-Su excitedly ran down to her bedroom.

When she ran in, Knuckles was not there. "Knuckles?" she yelled. "Ugh, why do you have to be like this? Where are you hiding?" she ran over to her closet and opened it, but no one was in there. "You're being a jerk." She walked over to her bed, and stood there, silently staring at the bottom. I know he's under there, she thought. After a long silent wait, Julie-Su suddenly jumped onto her bed.

"OW!" Knuckles yelled from underneath.

"Gotcha!" Julie-Su screeched. She leaned over and looked under, and Knuckles's face was right there. He backed up quickly.

"I hit my head on the bed..." he growled.

"Come out from under there, silly!" Julie-Su squealed.

"No!" Knuckles argued.

"Fine, then I'll get you out myself!" Julie-Su exclaimed. She fell onto the ground, and tried to grab Knuckles's arms but he pulled them back. So she crawled underneath the bed. Knuckles tried backing out but he got stuck, and Julie-Su got really, really close to him.

"I'm...STUCK!" Knuckles yelled. He started panicking, feeling very claustrophobic and uncomfortable. He struggled until he ended up having to lift up Julie-Su's bed. He lifted it up enough so that he could run out from underneath, and it slammed back down as Julie-Su ran out. She ran in between him and the door.

"Don't even think about leaving." she smiled creepily. "Or my parents will make you stay another night."

"If that's the case, I'll beat them just to get Tails so we can both escape together safely!" Knuckles yelled.

"Don't you beat my parents, you violent idiot!" Julie-Su yelled.

"I'm not an idiot!" Knuckles shouted. "But I can't leave Tails, and I know your dumb parents are always trying to separate me from him! I don't want to, but if I have to I'll beat them just to get to Tails!"

"You're pretty obstinate, aren't you?" Julie-Su remarked. "I like that."

"Go away!" Knuckles yelled.

"Don't you step outside that door, or I WILL hurt Tails in some way you'll never forget." Julie-Su declared.

"You can't do that..." Knuckles mumbled. "If you do, I'll beat you."

"You'll beat a girl?" Julie-Su asked.

"I don't care WHAT gender you are, if you hurt me or my friends, expect to get it back!" Knuckles yelled.

"But wouldn't you like to avoid seeing Tails get hurt in the first place?"

"I wouldn't let it happen in the first place..."

"Uh-huh..." Julie-Su walked over to what looked like a music player. She turned it on, and stupid music started playing. "You know what I did to those little birds out there...you don't want that happening to you..."

"...What?" Knuckles cried. "Why'd you turn that garbage on?"

"Because...I recall how you were acting in the restaurant..." Julie-Su smiled creepily again. She walked over to Knuckles.

"Don't get any closer..." Knuckles growled, backing away from her. But she ignored Knuckles and kept approaching him, backing him up into a corner of the room. At this point, Knuckles was terrified. He was shaking and he started hyperventilating.

"What's your problem?!" Julie-Su finally asked.

"Uuuuhhhh..." Knuckles mumbled, and lowered himself deeper into the corner.

"You're...I don't even know!" Julie-Su yelled, and kicked Knuckles's legs.

"Ow!" Knuckles yelled. He tried attacking her back, but he felt very weak and as if he could not move. So she continued kicking him.

"GET, UP, AND ACT NORMAL!" Julie-Su screamed, and kicked him in the head. Knuckles fell over, and had himself curled up.

"You are so STUPID!" Julie-Su screeched. "I liked you, too! Is this seriously what I want? But I still love you...but I don't! I don't know! Why are you so weird? Why have I soultouched with you but you haven't with me? Why are you laying there shaking, curled-up in a ball, huh? What is WRONG with you?"

Knuckles did not respond. He remained in one spot. He really wanted to beat her up, but he felt too weak. He let his fears weaken him. Now he was stuck in one spot. And that music was still playing. Julie-Su began yelling things again, but the sound started draining and getting mixed up. All the sounds were mixing with older memories. Memories of Knuckles's parents yelling at him, beating on him - they were mixing with the current sounds, and at the moment Knuckles felt like he was trapped in some kind of terrible place. He felt scared and he wanted out of it, but the sounds continued to distort and everything felt very dark around him.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Knuckles. I guess I should be nicer to you, shouldn't I?" Julie-Su said eventually. She bent over and picked him up, and ran over to her bed, quickly dropping him there. She crawled into her bed and wrapped herself around him. Knuckles felt even more terrified than before. Suddenly, the door opened.

"Knuckles, I can't sleep...I..." Tails began. He looked over and all he saw was Knuckles and Julie-Su in the bed together. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Tails screamed, and ran back down the hallway. Angered, he threw the Knuckles blanket at the floor and started banging on it. "NO! NO! NO!" he screamed. He started kicking and flailing himself allover the floor until finally Googoo walked over.

"What's all the fuss about, Tails?" Googoo asked.

"...Knuckles..." Tails mumbled very quietly, and fell down.

"Uh-oh..." Googoo mumbled. He ran down the hallway, but saw Julie-Su standing in the doorway. "What happened?"

"I don't know, Tails screamed and ran away." Julie-Su replied.

"No, tell me the full story." Googoo demanded.

"Well, Knuckles had a panic attack and fell down onto the floor. He wouldn't answer me. He was curled up into a ball so I put him on the bed and then I went into the bed too, and hugged him. Then Tails walked in, started saying how he couldn't sleep, screamed and ran away." Julie-Su explained.

Googoo looked over at the bed, and saw Knuckles laying there sprawled out, still shaking and hyperventilating. "Are you sure that's actually what happened?" Googoo walked over to Knuckles. "...Knuckles?" he turned him over, but Knuckles had his eyes closed. "Knuckles! Answer me! What happened?"

"...Uuuuh...I don't know..." Knuckles mumbled.

"What do you mean, 'you don't know'?" Googoo asked.

"I don't know..." Knuckles mumbled. "But I didn't do anything...never...ever..."

"Uh...okay..." Googoo got up. "I guess maybe Tails overreacted. I don't know what's wrong with Knuckles, but he's acting really abnormal."

"I know, he's been like that for the past ten minutes. It's annoying because he won't talk to me." Julie-Su agreed.

"I have the feeling that there's something really wrong with his head..." Googoo declared. He walked down the hall over to Tails, who had his face shoved into the floor. "Tails, what happened?" Googoo asked.

Tails looked up at Googoo, his face soaked. "I don't know...all I saw was Knuckles and Julie-Su in bed together for a second so I freaked out..." Tails replied.

"Maybe you can talk to him. Knuckles has been acting weird, and Julie-Su was hugging him, that's all." Googoo explained.

"...Oh..." Tails said, feeling stupid. He picked up the blanket and walked down the hall into the bedroom. "Knuckles?" Tails walked over to him. "It's me, Tails..."

"I didn't do anything, I promise..." Knuckles muttered.

"What do you mean?" Tails asked.

"Oh, never mind..." Knuckles replied. He sat up and looked at Tails. "I...I can't do this..."

"I think we really need to go." Tails remarked, noticing Knuckles's abnormal behaviour. "You're acting very strange. I don't think this is emotionally healthy for you."

"Uh, okay..." Knuckles said. Julie-Su walked in, and saw Knuckles extending his arms. She ran over and pushed Tails out of the way.

"GO AWAY!" Knuckles screamed. Both Julie-Su and Tails backed away from him. Julie-Su stared at him, then ran out the room. Tails continued to stare at Knuckles. Something was really weird and not right about him.

"We REALLY need to go!" Tails exclaimed. "Come on, before you go ballistic." he grabbed Knuckles's hand and pulled him out of the room.

"Where are you two going?" Googoo asked.

"We have to go, Googoo, I'm sorry. Knuckles is acting VERY weird. I don't think this is emotionally healthy for him. He could be suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, maybe...but we have to go before he kills someone." Tails cried, in a hurry.

Googoo could tell himself that Knuckles was acting pretty messed-up. "Alright, just go, find yourselves a place to stay." he said.

"But dad-" Julie-Su began.

"This is for Knuckles's...and everyone's sake, dear. I'll talk to you about it later, maybe tomorrow." Googoo turned to Tails and Knuckles, in which Tails was pulling Knuckles out the front door. "Bye."

"Bye..." Tails replied, and the front door slammed.

Tails looked up at Knuckles. "Don't worry, Knuckles. Everything will be okay."


	13. Chapter 13: The Escape

Sonic was relieved when Amy FINALLY left, just to be disappointed because all of Team Rose came back instead - that little six-year-old bunny carrying a five-hundred-million pound fat cat and a twelve-year-old hedgehog. It was even less logical than Tails carrying Sonic and Knuckles. How strong WAS Cream?

"Seriously? I thought you guys would actually not annoy me anymore!" Sonic cried. It was late, and he wanted to sleep.

"Will you buy the chocolates?" Cream asked.

Sonic sighed. "ONLY if you stay here and protect the Master Emerald!" he replied.

"Isn't that Mr. Knuckles' job?" asked Cream.

"He left with Tails to find the trapped echidnas in Mobotropolis or something..." Sonic replied. "Or was it Mauriceopolis?"

"Echidnaopolis?" Big asked.

"Yeah!" Sonic exclaimed. "Wait...how do YOU know?"

"Froggy..." Big replied. "He said it."

"I didn't know the frog talked, but okay..." Sonic mumbled. "Now will you do it or not?"

"I have to go home, sorry, Mr. Sonic." Cream apologised.

"YOU WON'T DATE ME!" Amy screeched.

"Froggy..." Big mumbled.

"Ugh!" Sonic cried. "Then leave me alone."

"Alright, bye, Mr. Sonic." said Cream. She picked up her friends and flew away.

Tails pulled Knuckles back into the Arthur Hotel, where their very long day began. He walked up to the counter.

"Oh, hello there Tails. You haven't checked-out yet, have you?" Sir Krinklestein remarked.

"No..." Tails replied. "Is it alright if we stay one more night free?"

"You two heroes can stay here for free as long as you'd like." Sir Krinklestein replied.

"Alright, thanks!" Tails exclaimed. "Come on Knuckles, we're going to our hotel room now."

Knuckles mumbled something indecipherable as Tails pulled him over to the elevator. Knuckles leaned on Tails during the whole elevator ride, which was a bit hard for Tails since he was smaller than him. But he did not mind. He pulled Knuckles back out of the elevator and over to their door. He pulled the keycard out of his fur and unlocked the door. When they got in the room, Tails set Knuckles on the bed before locking up the door so Julie-Su could not try to get in. Tails put the blankets over Knuckles so he would be more comfortable. At that point his eyes were closed again.

"Goodnight Knuckles...hope you feel better." Tails said. Still with the Knuckles blanket wrapped around himself, Tails climbed into the bed closer to the balcony and fell asleep.

Tails woke up to a loud crash. He nearly jumped right out of his bed.

"What was that?" he shrieked. He looked around the room, and saw Knuckles with a bunch of pots all over the place. He had caught some of them. "Knuckles? What are you doing?"

"I...I don't know! I opened this thing and these things I don't..." Knuckles said rapidly.

"Calm yourself..." Tails said in a polite manner. He got out of the bed and walked over to Knuckles. "You're acting weird..."

"I am?!" Knuckles exclaimed. He hurriedly tried to gather the pots but he kept dropping more. "Why are there pots in here isn't that weird?!"

"I don't know..." Tails bent over and calmly helped Knuckles with the pots. As Tails placed them back in the cupboard, Knuckles shoved the rest back and slammed the cupboard doors.

"Okay Tails we're going now I needed something to bring water we're getting outta here it's four o'clock in the morning!" Knuckles yelled quickly. He grabbed the last pot and a lid and darted into the bathroom. Tails glanced at the clock.

"So it is..." he remarked. "No wonder I feel exhausted." He watched Knuckles pace quickly around the bathroom as he waited for the water to clear up.

"Well, I could grab another too and we could put the food in there. They have food in the lobby." Tails suggested. He jumped up and opened the cupboard, barely stopping the heap of pots from falling again. He grabbed one and a lid before shutting the doors. "I'll be back in a sec." Tails said, about to open the door.

"No wait Tails wait for me I'm coming!" Knuckles shouted.

"Did you down a pot of coffee?" Tails asked.

"Nononono what's coffee?!" Knuckles asked as he filled up the pot.

"Never mind..." Tails muttered. "But you're acting really high-strung. Normally you NEVER act like that. Except in that dumb anime Sonic X..."

"Oh no I'm notttttt okay let's go!" Knuckles exclaimed. He ran over to Tails, who had the empty pot in his hands and the blanket around his neck.

"What's with the blanket Tails?!" Knuckles asked as they speed-walked down the hallway.

"I don't know I stole it from Julie-Su..." Tails replied. He pressed the button for the elevator. Knuckles started jamming on it a bunch.

"Stop!" Tails cried. He tried to stop Knuckles but he kept trying to hit the button. The elevator opened and they ran inside. However, the elevator started going up rather than down.

"REALLY?! At four o'clock in the morning?!" Knuckles yelled. "I was trying to avoid this problem!" he started dancing around the elevator impatiently.

"Knuckles, what's wrong? Are you acting weird because of last night?" Tails asked.

"Am I acting weird?!" Knuckles asked.

"Very..." Tails replied. "And last night you were acting very abnormal too, but in a different, scarier way..."

"Oh well sorry I don't mean to let's not talk about last night though!" Knuckles cried.

Ding!

Knuckles stopped running around the elevator and looked at the door. It opened, and a large family of echidnas with tons of bags and suitcases was standing there.

"We can fit!" exclaimed the mom.

"Oh great oh great!" Knuckles mumbled under his breath. There was a mom and dad, and about six kids, all young and loud, and there were a couple babies out of the six. They walked in, squishing Knuckles and Tails against the walls of the elevator.

"Oh my god!" Knuckles mumbled.

"MOMMY! STOP LOOKING AT ME!" screamed a little boy.

"WHAT'S WITH THAT ECHIDNA HE LOOKS VERY WEIRD!" screamed a little girl, pointing at Tails.

"That's a wolf, dear." her mother corrected.

"Fox!" Tails shouted quietly.

"MOMMY! STOP!" the boy started screaming, causing the two babies to cry. Eventually all the kids started screaming and the parents ignored them somehow. Knuckles felt like he was going to blow-up. Tails covered his large ears.

"WAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

"MOMMYYYYH! AAAAAHH!"

"WAAAAAAAAHHH!"

"SHUT-UP!" Knuckles screamed so loud, the whole elevator became completely silent.

Ding!

The elevator door opened. Knuckles and Tails watched as the family started walking out, when suddenly the father spun around and whacked Knuckles across the face.

"Don't you ever scream at my children, you weirdo!" he yelled. The kids started screaming again as the family walked off.

"Knuckles, are you okay?" Tails asked. Knuckles was holding his snout.

"Ow! Those jerk kids were blowing my eardrums!" Knuckles yelled. Tails stopped the doors from closing on them.

"Let's go, Knuckles..." Tails mumbled. They walked out. There was only food leftover from the night before.

"Oh yeah, I guess they haven't put food out yet..." he remarked. "Oh well, this is good enough."

"Those jerks didn't even check-out!" Knuckles remarked, still raging about the family.

"You're still talking about them? Why are they going to a hotel if they live here, anyway?" Tails wondered.

"Yeah, what the heck!" Knuckles agreed. "Okay let's hurry grab the food and go!"

"Alright..." Tails began to grab a bunch of stuff and put it in the pot. He only had it half-full when Knuckles got impatient with him and grabbed a ton of random food and dropped it into the pot.

"Okay good let's go!" he yelled. Tails put the lid on the pot.

"Are we not checking-out either?" Tails wondered.

"Who cares at this point keep the key in case everyone's going to die anyway it doesn't matter c'mon let's go!" Knuckles replied and ran out the front door. Tails ran after him.

"Where are we going, Knuckles?" Tails asked.

"I dunno I was thinking we could go out in the dark area there's probably a way out over there!" Knuckles replied.

"Okay, that sounds like a plan." Tails exclaimed. They began running off towards the edge of the city.

When they finally got there, they both stared off into the darkness.

"Well Knuckles...are you sure we should just go without the rest?" Tails asked.

"Yeah, they didn't want me to save them! They didn't think there was any way out and they doomed us just so some random girl could I mean..." Knuckles replied.

"What?" Tails asked.

"Never mind let's go!" Knuckles yelled and began running off into the darkness. Tails ran after him.


	14. Chapter 14: The Darkness

A few hours later, Knuckles and Tails finally decided to take a rest. They sat down on a large old root. Knuckles took the lid off the pot and began drinking the water. "Want any?" he asked.

"Uh sure, thanks." Tails replied and took the water from Knuckles. He did not drink a lot though. "This water kinda tastes gross..." Tails remarked. Realising he had not drank water for a while, he drank some more. "We should try to save it though."

"Okay." Knuckles said. He took the water back from Tails and set it down. Tails opened the other pot.

"What did you put in here?" Tails asked. He pulled out some fruit. "Want some of this?"

"Yeah, thanks." Knuckles replied. They ate a bit but decided to save the food as well.

"Well, you seem calmer now." Tails remarked. "You were very hyper and agitated earlier..."

"Yeah, sorry I don't know..." Knuckles mumbled. "And last night, sorry about that...I get really, really weird sometimes..."

"What actually happened?" Tails wondered.

"I would rather not talk about it..." Knuckles sighed. "But basically, Julie-Su backed me up into a corner. I started panicking...and then she started kicking me for some reason...and I remember wanting to attack her but I couldn't...and everything after that was some dark, distorted thing...I don't know...and then you were there, and then we left..."

"That's really weird..." Tails remarked. "Why did you start acting like that? Did something bad happen to you a long time ago?"

"I don't know..." Knuckles sighed. "I just get like that...well there's actually a reason, but..."

"But what?" Tails asked.

"I don't really want to tell you..." Knuckles mumbled.

"I won't care. I'm your friend. I'm not going to make fun of you..." Tails reassured.

"Yeah, but...you wouldn't understand. You're too young." Knuckles replied.

"How am I 'too young'? What is it? Now it will just annoy me..." Tails cried.

"Okay, fine..." Knuckles sighed. "I know you won't understand because you're only eight, and don't EVER tell anyone I said this, especially Sonic, but...I...hate..."

For some reason, Tails felt terrified. "Uh, maybe we should go now Knuckles! Come on!" he grabbed the pot of food and darted off.

" ...Never mind..." Knuckles sighed. He grabbed the pot of water and ran off after Tails. He finally caught up to him.

"Do you think we'll ever find a way out?" Tails asked.

"Hopefully..."

Googoo walked into the Arthur Hotel lobby, somehow knowing Knuckles and Tails have been staying there. Julie-Su walked in behind him.

"Have you seen Knuckles or Tails?" Googoo asked Sir Krinklestein.

"They stayed last night, but never checked-out this morning...they must have gone somewhere temporarily, I'm assuming." Krinklestein replied.

"Alright, thanks." Googoo and Julie-Su walked back outside. A random red echidna with a moustache wearing a top hat, a monocle, and a tuxedo skipped by while holding a giant lollipop and singing the muppets theme song.

"Maybe we should go ask Old Granny Applebee. She knows everything about everything." Googoo suggested, ignoring Wilson McWilson.

"Where is she?" Julie-Su asked, grabbing onto her creepy father's arm.

"Usually she hangs out on Dreadlocks Avenue, does she not?" Googoo replied. "Come on."

They walked over to Dreadlocks Avenue, where a random old lady echidna was sitting on the side of the road begging for money.

"Old Granny Applebee, have you seen a red echidna with spiky fists or an orange two-tailed fox?" Googoo asked.

"Oh, to be honest I did see them!" Old Granny Applebee picked herself up. "I saw them walk over yonder, towards the darkness around four o'clock this morning." she pointed with her cane.

"The darkness?!" Googoo exclaimed. "Of course they would...they do not know the dangers of the darkness..." he said, not questioning Granny's reason to why she was walking around outside so early.

"Maybe they went to go look for a way out." Julie-Su remarked.

"Why of course, Julie! We must follow them then. We'll gather the whole town for a meeting!" Googoo exclaimed, and they both ran off.

Meanwhile, Knuckles and Tails felt very lost in the darkness.

"What if we're just walking in circles?" Tails cried.

"We're not..." Knuckles mumbled. "It's fine..."

"Whatever you say..." Tails sighed. He thought for a moment. "What if Julie-Su somehow found us out-"

Knuckles turned around. "Don't even THINK about that!" he snapped. "Seriously, what are the chances of that creep finding us out here anyway?"

"Who knows..." Tails mumbled.

"Then again, I wouldn't be surprised." Knuckles muttered as he started walking again. "You know, sometimes I feel like the worst possible things always happen to me..."

"Bad things happen to everyone, Knux." Tails reassured. "Do you not think anything bad has happened to me?"

"No...it's just that the worst case scenarios happen to me..." Knuckles replied.

"Like what, this whole Julie-Su thing?"

"Yeah, this is one of them." Knuckles replied. "But other things too, like Rouge, or my parents...you don't see those things happening to Sonic, or Amy, or whoever. It's always me. I'm getting so sick of it! What have I ever done? I mean I guess I react violently sometimes..."

"That's true I guess...I don't know, it's not like you would ever hurt your friends, and you're actually a good friend..." Tails remarked.

Knuckles sighed heavily. "I don't know..."

Tails looked up, noticing a spec of light way ahead of them. "Hey look, Knuckles!" he exclaimed, pointing towards it.

"Could that be a way out?" Knuckles wondered. "I sure hope so!" They started running ahead, but slowed down after a moment.

"It's too far away..." Knuckles remarked. "Running's not going to help, it will just make us tired..."

"I guess, but it would still get us there faster...I know, why can't I just fly over there and pull you as you run? Because that will get us over there in no time!" Tails suggested.

"Yeah, but what about the food and water?" Knuckles asked.

"Oh, right...well how fast do you run anyway? I thought you could run pretty fast." Tails asked.

"Yeah, but probably not as fast as you can fly...and I'm carrying water in a pot. It's likely to spill." Knuckles replied.

"Well, I would just say ditch the food and water, but it would suck if we got there and we couldn't even escape, or it's actually even farther than it seems..." Tails explained. "What should we do?"

"I don't know, what do you think we should do?" Knuckles asked.

"I don't know, I asked you!"

"I don't know! You pick!"

"I don't know!"

"This really isn't getting us anywhere, is it?" Knuckles realised. "Wow, we're horrible at making up our minds..."

"Yeah..." Tails agreed, "so what do you want to do?"

"I seriously don't know..." Knuckles replied.

"Well, we'll keep walking until we figure it out then." Tails announced.

"Okay..."

Tails and Knuckles walked through the darkness for a long while, once in a while drinking some water or taking some food out to eat. They figured they would walk for a while and if they ran out of food and water before getting to the opening, Tails could then fly over with Knuckles, making things easier.

Eventually, after many hours, they got tired and decided to have a rest on the side of a dirt slope. Tails ended up falling asleep, leaving Knuckles bored sitting beside him.

"Great..." Knuckles mumbled. He tried falling asleep himself, but he could not. It was not nighttime and Knuckles did not feel tired. How could Tails just fall asleep like that? He wondered. After a long while, Tails did finally wake up.

"...What happened?" Tails asked. "Sonic?"

"You fell asleep..." Knuckles replied.

"Oh! I did? That's random..." Tails exclaimed. He grabbed the water pot and drank some water, noticing it was almost empty. "Well, we don't really have any water left. We could just go now...the food shouldn't really spill."

"Okay, let's go then." Knuckles replied. They both stood up, ready to speed over to the spot where they could possibly escape, possibly get out of this...

"Yoo-hoo, is that my honey bunny standing over there with that little fox nuisance?" screeched a painfully familiar voice. Knuckles wanted to smash his head against a concrete wall at this point. Tails spun around on his heel.

"Knuckles!" he shouted. "It's not only Julie-Su...it's the whole town!"


	15. Chapter 15: Stalkers!

Knuckles turned around and saw a mob of echidnas. Julie-Su began sprinting towards Knuckles. Knuckles darted out of the way just in time.

"Oh, Knuckles, silly!" Julie-Su screeched. "Are you alright now?"

"How did you guys find us out here?!" Knuckles yelled, slightly annoyed.

"Old Granny Applebee told us you two went out towards the darkness. We figured you must have left to find a way out, so we gathered the whole town!" Julie-Su explained.

"See, I told you they would find us..." Tails whispered. Knuckles gave him a look.

"Oh, it's you again!" yelled that annoying guy that kept bothering Knuckles.

"Yeah, who are you anyway?" Knuckles asked.

"Drake." the guy replied.

"Okay..." Knuckles mumbled.

Googoo, Momma-Su, Gramgram and Grandpop walked up to them.

"Have you guys had any luck with finding a way out yet?" Googoo asked.

"There's a spec of light way over there." Tails pointed. He turned to Knuckles. "Oh great, now we can't just fly over quickly!" he whispered.

"Oh my God..." Knuckles mumbled. "They will probably want us to stay with them..."

"Well, we better get going now." Googoo remarked. "Come on everyone!" he yelled back at the large crowd. Everyone began walking again. As Knuckles and Tails walked beside each other, Knuckles could feel both Julie-Su and Drake encroaching on him.

"Where are they?" he whispered to Tails without looking.

"Who?" Tails asked.

"You know..."

"Huh?" Tails looked behind themselves and saw Julie-Su and Drake walking really close behind Knuckles. They kept exchanging looks, as if they were having a conversation about Knuckles with their eyes.

"They're right there..." Tails whispered.

"I knew it..." Knuckles tried walking into Tails but he could still feel the two nuisances behind him. Suddenly Bark walked out of nowhere to his left.

"There you are!" Bark exclaimed. "Mighty saw you last night and he said something weird was going on..."

"Oh yeah, the thing with..." Knuckles mumbled, and looked back, referring to Julie-Su.

"What?" Bark asked.

Knuckles gritted his teeth. "The girl behind me..." he muttered.

"Oh..." Bark said. "You mean Jordan Girard?"

"What?!" Knuckles exclaimed.

"Hey, why is that grizzly bear here all of the sudden?!" Julie-Su screamed into Knuckles's head.

"Polar bear!" Bark yelled.

"Same thing! Why are you here?!" Julie-Su asked.

"I was talking to Knuckles..." Bark replied.

"Hey look it's Jordan Girard!" screamed Bean, jumping out of nowhere. Mighty ran over to Knuckles and threw the tuxedo at his face.

"You forgot that." he remarked.

"I don't want it..." Knuckles mumbled and threw it at Tails's head.

"What the..." Tails murmured. He took it off his face. "Knuckles, why did you throw this at me?"

"I don't know..." Knuckles replied.

"What are these guys doing here?" Drake asked.

"I just said, we were talking to Knuckles! Or I was anyway..." Bark replied.

"Oh, so you're friends with that loser?" Drake asked.

"He's not a 'loser'..." Bark replied.

"Don't be so mean! Why are you even here Drake?" Julie-Su asked.

"Because!" Drake yelled obnoxiously. Unexpectedly, he hit Knuckles in the back of his head. Knuckles stopped walking and looked down.

"What are you doing, moron?" Drake yelled.

"Are you alright?!" Tails yelled. Julie-Su just stared blankly at them, not really caring. The other three did not know how to react. Suddenly, Knuckles spun around.

"Don't EVER hit me ON THE HEAD!" Knuckles screamed. He was about to hit Drake back when Googoo grabbed him even though he was not there two seconds ago. Knuckles fell over, accidentally punching the ground. Everyone else fell over because of this.

"What the heck!" Knuckles yelled. He pushed Googoo off of him. "Go away!"

Googoo got up. "Don't be hitting people, now." Googoo lectured.

"He hit my head..." Knuckles grumbled. Googoo looked at Drake.

"Why are you here, anyway, eh?" Googoo asked. "Go mind your own business."

"Oh, 'Knuckles' and me..." Drake began.

"It's I..." Knuckles muttered.

"Shut-up!" Drake yelled. "We were just playing around, weren't, buddy?" he put his hands on Knuckles's shoulders and stared at him. He whispered something very offensive to Knuckles that only Knuckles caught. Knuckles backed away and looked down.

"Yeah, I knew it..." Drake said.

"No..." Knuckles muttered. He turned around and started running off.

"What the heck just happened?" Mighty asked.

"I don't know, that guy's a lunatic." Drake replied.

"Seriously, why are you here?" Julie-Su asked.

"Because Knuckles and me...I mean I are friends!" Drake yelled.

"No you aren't!" Tails yelled. "You obviously somehow just hurt Knuckles because why else would he just run away like that?! You're just a bully!" Tails screamed, and ran off after Knuckles.

"Whiny kid..." Drake mumbled.

"Seriously, go away Drake." Julie-Su carried on.

"Should we go see what's wrong with them?" Bark asked Mighty and Bean. They agreed and ran off, leaving Drake and Julie-Su fighting.

Knuckles could hear Tails calling from behind him. He began running faster. Tails noticed this and began flying after Knuckles.

"Knuckles! What's wrong?!" Tails called. He flew around in front of him. Knuckles turned away. "What even happened?"

"Nothing." Knuckles muttered. "It's not true."

"What's not true?" Tails asked.

"What he said..."

"Oh, yeah obviously you guys aren't friends..." Tails agreed.

"No, not that, what he said to me. It wasn't true..." Knuckles replied.

"What did he say?" Tails wondered.

"Nothing, it's fine..." Knuckles sighed. "It's just that...people misin...misinterper...misinpert..."

"Misinterpret?" Tails asked. "They misinterpret you?"

"Yeah, I guess..." Knuckles replied.

"What just happened?" Mighty asked, running up beside them with Bark and Bean.

"Nothing, don't worry about it. Let's just start walking before they catch up with us again." Knuckles replied. They began walking ahead. "Look, do you guys think I'm weird?"

"I don't know..." Mighty replied.

"Well, that's reassuring..." Knuckles mumbled. He looked behind himself. The rest were pretty far behind.

"Well, we don't really know you enough...but if we really didn't like you, I don't think we would be really trying to help you or anything..." Mighty explained.

"Yeah, that's true..." Knuckles agreed. "Thanks, I guess..."

"KNUCKLES!" screamed Julie-Su.

"Uuugggghhhh!" Knuckles grumbled. "Leave me ALONE!"

"No!" Julie-Su argued. "I don't care what my dad says about you acting weird. You're my soulmate!"

"No, I'm..." Knuckles turned to Julie-Su. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!" he screamed. "You would have better luck with that jerk over there!"

"No, he's annoying." Julie-Su declared. "Whatever Knuckles, I'm sure you will surface eventually..."

"Okay..." Knuckles mumbled. He turned back around. "She's been annoying me since the incident at your...whatever place."

"Oh..." Mighty said. "Okay..."

"She's kinda creepy..." Bark whispered.

"Yeah, I know, right?" Knuckles agreed.

"WHAT ARE YOU TWO SAYING ABOUT ME?!" Julie-Su screamed suddenly.

"NOTHING!" Knuckles yelled. "Listen to your creepy dad and leave me alone!"

"NO!" Julie-Su refused.

"Seriously?! Can't you see I practically hate you?" Knuckles cried.

"You shouldn't hate people..." Julie-Su remarked.

"Yeah, says the one that hates Tails..." Knuckles muttered.

"I'm surprised there aren't a ton of people mobbing you..." Tails remarked.

"Yeah, that's true...maybe Googoo talked to them all?" Knuckles wondered.

"They must have had some sort of gathering." Tails replied. "And he could have explained your...issues..."

"What do you mean, issues?!" Knuckles yelled.

"Um..." Tails mumbled. "I mean...like how you get angry and stuff...and also the thing that happened the other night was messed-up."

"I guess, I don't know, sometimes I wonder..." Knuckles began.

"Wonder what?" Tails asked.

"If there's something wrong with myself...I don't know..." Knuckles sighed.

"There is nothing wrong with you. No one is perfect." Tails reassured. "I mean, maybe your childhood had some effect...I have no idea about your past though, but it doesn't seem like it was probably good..."

"Yeah, let's not go down that road..." Knuckles muttered.

"Go down what road, dear?" Julie-Su asked suddenly.

"I THOUGHT YOU LEFT! Grr!" Knuckles yelled. He started running ahead again. As he ran he began to speed up. He was not sure if Tails was flying after him or not, but he did not really want to look back. Knuckles only wanted to be back above the ground, away from all the other echidnas, especially Julie-Su and even Drake. I want to go back to Angel Island... Knuckles thought. I feel more comfortable there. There aren't a ton of annoying people all over you...if only that freaking Rouge creep wasn't there! Why does she have to be there? Why does she have to be obsessed with ME, of all people? It's not fair... Knuckles got so deep in thought that he forgot what he was doing and tripped over a large rock. He fell over and hit his head on the ground.

"Ow!" Knuckles yelled.

"Knuckles! Are you okay?" Tails exclaimed. He helped Knuckles back up.

"So you were following me..." Knuckles mumbled. He looked back and saw Julie-Su running towards them. "LET'S GO!" he said, sounding angry and ran off again.

"Okay..." Tails said and flew off after Knuckles.

A while later, after Knuckles and Tails grew exhausted, they slowed down to walking. Julie-Su and the others were way behind them. Julie-Su would not be catching up anytime soon, hopefully.

"Looks like we might almost be there!" Tails exclaimed.

"Good." Knuckles replied. "I can't WAIT to get out of here."

"Me too." Tails sighed with slight relief. "I'm glad we're not going to die, Knuckles."

"...Yeah..." Knuckles muttered with uncertainty.

"What's wrong?" Tails asked.

"I'm sure you'll be fine, maybe, but you do realise that everyone's gonna be following us out of here? That means I'll still be harassed by Julie-Su once we escape! Then I have to deal with both her AND Rouge!"

Tails stared at Knuckles with an empty expression on his face. "You're right..."

"And that jerk, Blake or whatever will be there too..." Knuckles grumbled.

"You mean Drake." Tails corrected.

"Yeah...oh my God, it's like we've switched!" Knuckles laughed, for a split-second before feeling dead inside again. "Ugh..."

"It's okay..." Tails mumbled, trying to comfort his friend. "I think..."


	16. Chapter 16: Tails

After a long, silent walk, Knuckles and Tails were finally almost there. They could barely see a dirt wall with what looked like steps leading up to the exit.

"I could just fly up there! Want me to carry you up?" Tails offered.

"I guess if you want..." Knuckles replied. Tails grabbed Knuckles's hands and began lifting him up towards the exit.

"HEY!" they could hear Googoo screeching from way back behind them. Tails had a panic attack and dropped Knuckles.

"OW!" Knuckles screamed. "What just happened?! Why'd you drop me like that?!"

"Didn't you hear Googoo screaming? Sorry Knux, it scared me..." Tails apologised.

"Okay...I thought I heard something but you panicked before I could even register it."

"Sorry..." Tails murmured.

"WAIT FOR US!" Googoo screamed.

Knuckles turned around. "N-" Tails stopped him. He looked at Knuckles.

"Just..."

"What?!" Knuckles growled. "Don't you want to get out? Who cares about those jerks!"

"Better to be nice." Tails remarked. "I know you hate them, I'm not a big fan of most of them but we should just wait for them anyway. Shouldn't get on their bad side."

Knuckles grumbled something and ran off.

"Knuckles!" Tails yelled. "Whatever! Fine! Don't listen to me."

Knuckles ran back to Tails and leaned over. "Look, Tails, if you were me, you would understand, okay?"

"Okay..." Tails mumbled. Knuckles ran off again. "But if I were you, of course I would, and I would have said that exact thing to myself...wait, what?"

Tails looked back. He could not really see the mob, but he knew they were nearing him. He looked in the other direction and saw Knuckles beginning to climb up the wall.

"Ugh, you know what..." Tails muttered. He ran over to Knuckles.

"What are you doing?" Knuckles asked as he hurriedly climbed the lopsided, dirt steps.

"I'm coming." Tails replied. He began flying up and began to notice Knuckles having issues. He fell over and hit the ground.

"Knuckles! What the heck was that?" Tails landed beside Knuckles and realised what was wrong - the ground was shaking. "Oh no..."

Knuckles tried to get back up as Tails could hear the mob of echidnas screaming behind them.

"Freaking..." Knuckles muttered. "Carry me up there!"

Tails quickly grabbed Knuckles's hands, but the ground was shaking so violently they fell over again.

"God! I want to get outta here before Julie-Su gets here!" Knuckles screamed.

"I'm sorry!" Tails whimpered and fell over as he tried getting back up again. Knuckles fell on his stomach and grabbed Tails's hands.

"Just start flying!" he cried.

"Um, okay, I'll try..." Tails began to propel his tails, lifting them up. Dirt, rocks and such began falling from above. Tails got hit in the head by a small stone and nearly fell down again.

"Don't worry, we'll get out!" Tails promised. He flew violently towards the dirt steps and accidentally rammed Knuckles into them, dropping him by accident.

"OW!" Knuckles yelled. He grabbed ahold of a step before he could tumble back to the bottom.

"What do you guys think you're doing, trying to escape without us, eh?" Googoo screamed from right behind Knuckles. Knuckles nearly had a heart-attack. Without saying anything he began climbing up the steps as quickly as he could. Tails was flying up just above him. Tails looked back and saw all the echidnas trying to climb up after Knuckles.

"Oh God..." Tails mumbled quietly.

Near the bottom of the steps, Julie-Su began climbing up.

"I must get to Knuckles!" she screamed as other echidnas tried shoving past her. "MOVE!" She finally made it about halfway, but she was blocked from going any faster by Mighty.

"MOVE!" Julie-Su repeated. She grabbed his heal and pulled him back. Mighty fell backwards and landed on Bark's face behind Julie-Su.

"WHAT?!" Bark yelled and accidentally let go of the steps. They both fell all the way back to the bottom.

"NOO!" Bean screamed, beside Julie-Su. Julie-Su stared at him.

"BY THE WAY, MY NAME IS NOT JORDAN GIRARD!" she screamed, and then punched Bean in the stomach. Bean fell backwards. Julie-Su quickly began climbing up after the others.

Knuckles was just about to reach the exit. A great feeling of happiness and relief fell over him - for a split second as he suddenly felt someone grab on to his back. An intense feeling of dread quickly washed over him.

Tails looked at Knuckles just before he was about to escape too. "KNUCKLES!" Tails screamed. "GET OFF HIM!"

"NO!" Julie-Su screamed. She just barely grabbed Tails's tails and flung him back. Knuckles saw this out of the corner of his eye and jumped up, causing Julie-Su to fall back into Googoo.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Knuckles screamed as he saw Tails disappear, falling back into the abyss of darkness. Knuckles turned to Julie-Su. "You..." Knuckles muttered. "I, FREAKING, HATE, YOU!" he screamed and punched

Julie-Su in the face. He grabbed her and threw her down the steps out of rage. Then he jumped off the steps in the same direction Tails was flung in. The other echidnas stared at them.

"Julie-Su!" Googoo yelled. He and Momma-Su jumped down after her. All the other echidnas exchanged glances, then began escaping themselves.


	17. Chapter 17: Never, Ever, AGAIN!

As Knuckles nearly landed onto the ground, he thought he felt something grab his hands. He did not bother to try and see who it was, but when he realised he was being lifted into the air, he felt hope. However, he was too exhausted to look.

The next thing Knuckles knew, he was put down into a patch of grass against a tree somewhere. He slowly tried opening his eyes, but the sun was way too bright especially after being stuck underground for so long. He could barely make out a young fox standing over him.

"...Tails...?" Knuckles mumbled.

"Yeah...?" Tails asked. "We made it out, Knuckles. We've escaped."

Knuckles lifted the upper part of his body more. He stared at Tails. "Really..." he mumbled, then suddenly he wrapped his arms around Tails. Tails was

surprised.

"You're alive!" Knuckles exclaimed. "I'm so glad...I thought you were dead..."

"Yeah..." Tails mumbled. "I thought she killed me...but I was able to grab you and fly ourselves out. Why didn't you just leave?"

Knuckles looked up. "Because...because I thought you were dead..." Knuckles repeated.

"Uh, okay..." Tails replied. "Come on, we should head back now."

"Okay..." Knuckles let go of Tails and got up. He looked around and noticed a bunch of echidnas in the distance. "Yeah, we should!" he exclaimed. The two of them ran off.

Meanwhile, back at Angel Island, Sonic was having a blast playing tic-tac-toe with himself.

"Oh dear, looks like no one wins...AGAIN!" he exclaimed. "Oh my God! How does Knuckles not go insane?" Sonic got up and began kicking the dirt. "What is taking them soooo long?"

Sonic began to wonder if something bad had happened to them. No...nothing bad would have happened...nothing bad has happened! he thought, trying to be positive. They should be back soon...

Knuckles and Tails made it to a lake. Both of them were so incredibly thirsty they tried drinking the water from the lake.

Knuckles noticed something purple on the other side. "Hey, isn't that Big?" he asked. Tails looked over.

"Yeah, I think it is! We must be close then!" Tails exclaimed. "Maybe he has seen the others!" Tails began flying over before Knuckles could respond. Knuckles jumped into the lake and began swimming after him.

Tails walked up to Big. "Hey Big, have you seen any of the others today?" he asked.

"Durr...dunno, Tails. Ask Knuckles." Big replied and continued fishing.

Tails put his hand on his face. "Never mind..." he mumbled.

"C'mon, let's just go." Knuckles said. "Uh, thanks for your help anyway, Big..." they both ran off into the trees.

Sonic had never felt more relieved in his life when he saw Tails carrying Knuckles above him.

"Hey, guys!" Sonic yelled. He began waving his arms and running around.

"There's Sonic." Knuckles pointed. Tails lowered him to the ground beside Sonic.

"Hey, Knucklehead!" Sonic exclaimed. "What took..." Sonic began to notice something weird about Knuckles. "...Knuckles...you seem...different..."

"Really? Well guess what. I had a blast of a time." Knuckles snapped.

"Uh..." Sonic stepped back. "Also...what's with you eyes...?"

"What about them?" Knuckles asked. "Oh...uh..."

"Were you crying or something..." Sonic asked. He looked at Tails, who looked a bit the same. "Tails, what happened?!"

"Oh Sonic, it was terrible!" Tails cried. He ran up to him. "I'm really glad to be back."

"Yeah, but what happened?" Sonic repeated.

"Uh..." Tails looked over at Knuckles who looked away. Tails looked back at Sonic. "Well...there really was an Echidnaopolis...and there really were echidnas down there...we found a hidden elevator leading to it, but the thing was, we couldn't get back up." Tails explained. "We also found Bark, Mighty and Bean. Hey, I wonder if they escaped..."

"So what happened with that whole…'offspring' thing?" Sonic asked. Knuckles winced.

"Don't say that!" he yelled. He turned around. "Do you want to know? I'll tell you. When we went down there there was this girl named Julie-Su and she was freaking obsessed with me! She wouldn't EVER leave us alone! She was psychotic, AND she hated Tails! All her 'friends' were the biggest jerks ever! And then I HAD TO SLEEP IN HER ROOM! But that didn't go very well AT ALL! And she kills things, and it was horrible! And then she almost killed Tails, on purpose! So don't ever freaking talk about this again, OKAY? Never, EVER AGAIN!" Knuckles screamed, and ran over to one of his burrows and disappeared.

Sonic stared blankly at Tails. "What...was that?"

"I don't know, but to be honest it actually was horrible. And it must have been so much worse for Knuckles..." Tails replied. "Maybe we should just never talk about it again. I think that would be a good idea, okay?"

"I guess." Sonic replied.

Tails noticed some framed photographs laying around. He picked them up and looked at them.

"Hey, this is that weird Wyn guy...and Kneecaps, which makes no sense..." Tails remarked. "And that's his horrible mom..."

"How do you know?" Sonic asked. Tails gave him a look.

"I don't know who this creepy old guy is!" Tails exclaimed. Suddenly he threw them on the ground. "I don't want to look at echidnas anymore. Let's go, Sonic!"

"Oooookaaaaaay..." Sonic replied. Tails grabbed him and flew off.


End file.
